DECEMBER 2020 FREE
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
The season of giving Nonprofits adapt to provide during pandemic BY ROB ANTHES, JOE EMANSKI AND SAM SCIARROTTA
Caryn Newman of Willowood Pottery, at work in her Ewing studio.
Area artists give holiday gift givers reasons to shop local BY JOE EMANSKI
If the weather is nice, and you know where Jim and Sandy Pezzillo live, you might think about cruising past their house one of these days. If you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of a glassblower at work in the driveway. The artisan in question would be Jim and Sandy’s son Jarryd, founder of Pezz Glassworks, who has been turning
molten glass into pieces of art — with the aid of a fiery furnace he built himself — since he started his new venture at the end of the summer. Or even if the weather is not that great, you might head over to the Mountain View section of Ewing, where potter Caryn Newman of Willowood Pottery has a studio and showroom in her garage. You will need an appointment (and a mask), but once those
things are squared away, she would be happy to show you some of the many wheelthrown or hand-built items she has for sale. Pezzillo and Newman are just two of the hundreds of artists and craftspeople in the area who spend their days making unique and beautiful objects by hand. And whether they are decorative, functional or both, objects like these can See GIFTS, Page 7
Last holiday season, Ewing residents Kelly and Chris Stevens had extra reasons to be thankful. They had moved into a new apartment with their two sons, age 15 and 8, thanks to a security deposit from Lawrence-based nonprofit HomeFront. This ended a period of homelessness for their family, during which they stayed in a low-budget hotel and their oldest son tried to run away. They said the move was a fresh start. Kelly and Chris had jobs they liked at local restaurants. Their children benefited from the stability of having a home of their own. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March. Slowly, everything unraveled. Chris and Kelly lost their jobs and got several months behind on rent. Chris got a new position at a shipping company and worked night shifts at a restaurant, but it wasn’t enough. Afraid, they called HomeFront, and received help with back rent and groceries. Their boys were placed on a list to be sponsored so that they might receive presents this Christmas. HomeFront has provided these kinds of services to local families for 30 years. But it has found surging demand during the pandemic. The nonprofit
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has distributed more than double the number of groceries and other basic essentials in 2020 than in a normal year, and six times the number of diapers and baby wipes. The pandemic also hasn’t lessened the need for other services provided by HomeFront, such as emergency shelter for 38 families at its Family Campus in Ewing, managing 115 low-cost apartments and helping families with education, job training and placement and life skills. Each holiday season, it also puts on its Christmas Wishes program, where individuals, churches and businesses purchase gifts for children. Homefront supplies the child’s gender, age and a wish list so that each child will have presents to open on Christmas Day. In 2019, the community supported 3,300 homeless or formerly homeless children through Homefront. The nonprofit always has relied on help from the community in order to provide relief to local people. This remains true as it attempts to meet the increased need in the area. Much of this support comes in the form of volunteering. More than 3,000 people volunteer at Homefront every year. Volunteers, in conjunction with in-kind donations and financial support from the community, have allowed Homefront to help 32,000 local people just this year. In May, Lawrence residents Alexander and Eric Xia dropped off some donations for the food pantry at HomeSee GIVING, Page 15
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