Happier holidays: Gift-card drive in the works to help Acton kids
Last year, the drive collected just over $8,000 in gift cards, distributed to 120 children from low-income Acton families.
Acton’s social services office is gearing up to send out its holiday cards. Not the kind that fold in half — the kind that help put gifts under the tree.
Each December, the town’s community services coordinator organizes a gift-card drive that quietly collects thousands of dollars and reaches more than a hundred low-income children in Acton. What began years ago as a toy drive has evolved into a system that families say works better.
“We used to ask for toys, and I’d get them all in my office and bring the parents in to choose,” said Bonny Wilbur, the services coordinator who manages the holiday drive as part of her work with low-income families. “That went on for many years until the pandemic. That’s when we changed to gift cards, and the parents prefer it.”
Wilbur maintains a caseload of Acton families and reaches out directly each year to ask whether they’d like to participate.
The process has become streamlined post-pandemic. Residents and town employees donate gift cards. Wilbur matches each card to a child’s age and interests, and then gives the cards directly to families.
“People send us all different kinds of gift cards,” she said. “If it’s someone with a young child, then I send a toy shop gift card or something. If it’s a teenager, I’ll send them a Dunkin’ card or whatever makes sense.”
Angel investors
Last year, the drive collected just over $8,000 in gift cards. That bounty was distributed to 120 children from low-income Acton families.
Most of that money, a little under $7,000, came from the Freemasons of the Corinthian Lodge.
Senior Warden Perry Tomasetti and lodge Treasurer Doug Ellis helped lead the charge last year. Ellis is a long-standing champion of the gift card drive.
“Doug takes up the task of fundraising as soon as we get back from summer break, and by some magic, can meet a portion of the need detailed by the town in time to make a difference during the holiday season,” Tomasetti wrote in an email to The Acton Bridge.
The lodge uses its Angel Fund, which assists those in need, to donate to the drive every year.
Asked why they keep donating, Tomasetti said the drive “is one of the ways we can say thank you, and we’re happy to do it.”
A slow process
Wilbur is trying to find ways to increase donations this year compared with last, including partnering with organizers of the Jingle & Mingle event that took place in Acton Center last weekend. She said it’s always a slow start.
As of December 9, $150 in donations had been made, which Wilbur said isn’t unusual.
“Most of the donations start to come in mid-month,” she said.
Wilbur said she hopes to have all the gift cards in hand by December 15. Donations can be mailed to Bonny Wilbur, Acton Community Services Coordinator, 55 Church Street, Acton, MA 01742. They may also be dropped in the lockbox in the Town House lobby, just left of the main entrance, or in the lockbox beside the front door at 55 Church Street.
