Bedford Santa Gives Thanks to Many Helpers

The Bedford Community Santa program completed its 77th year with traditional home visits by 15 teams of volunteers who visited 273 homes and delivered in excess of 900 presents on a frigid Christmas Eve.  

Bedford Community Santa program chairs Lorraine Griecci, Bobbie Ennis, Caroline Fedele, Paolo and Susan Sepe, Jenny Stewart, Christine Smith, and David Dalrymple appreciate the seven families who on Christmas Eve or shortly before then notified Bedford Santa that their home had either a Covid positive individual or another possibly contagious person. There were also 26 families that let Santa know of changed plans, four that would be home for Christmas Eve due to travel plans being changed, and 22 that would not be at home. Santa hopes to visit all next year.

Volunteers for this year include:

Ansh Aggarwal, Claire Anderson, Sandy Baker, Tom, Eli Barkovic & Pat Wardwell, Gregory, Elizabeth & Victoria Barry, Frank & Tom Baudanza, Ben, Cole & Tim Bennett, Terri Bradford, Dan, James & Oren Brosgol, Alex, Owen, Samantha & Susan Brough, Russell Bryan & Christine Smith & James Bryan, Kristen & Laura Bullock, Allan Coady, Ann-Marie (Sweeney) & Ian Copland, David & Jennifer Dalrymple, Marianne Dinkel, Lisa DiSanzo, Eryn Eddy, Bobbie Ennis, Rita Fardy. Caroline (Ennis) Fedele and Shayla Fedele, Matt Forman, Deborah Genetti, Lorraine Griecci, Renee Coleman Guidaboni, Gray Hannigan, Dave, Francine & Dan Hennessey, Johnny Hong, & Holly Hang & Elizabeth and Eleanor Hong, Raelene & Quinn Houck, Chris Lipson, Kristin Marcus, Cindy McGowan, Lucy McGovern, Jim McMahan, TJ Mead, Ruth Munden, Jen Murphy, Ron, Lori Ann, Emmett & Adam O’Brien, Emily O’Hara, Andrew Pasciuto, Jim & Will Paton, Bill Penwarden, Gregory Potter, Paul, Barbara & Elyse Purchia, Tory Reavis, Amanda Rowan, Kathy Schnitger, Rayhan Semy, Susan & Paolo Sepe, Kristin Sladen, Jen Sokolaski, Richard & Tom Spaulding, Kathy Stanick, Jennifer Stewart, Andrew Sullivan, Martha Sullivan, John Thorsen, Claire Toupin, Lori & Brian Vitale, Amy (Dalrymple) Wallace, Judy Watkins, Bob, JR & Linda White, and Athelney Woolnough.

Bedford Community Santa apologizes for any volunteers that were inadvertently missed or the name is misspelled. Special thanks to Santa Shoppers Eryn Eddy, Susan Sepe, Kristin Sladen, and Jenny Stewart.  

Christine Smith handled supplies for Santa volunteers on Christmas Eve. Claire Toupin headed the Santa preparation team and Shayla Fedele handled Santa make up. Lorraine Griecci and Caroline Fedele handled the food for the volunteers on Gift Drop Day while new volunteer Renee Coleman Guidaboni took care of Christmas Eve food needs. Lorraine Griecci handled the new family notifications introducing folks new to Bedford about the program.

Jenny Stewart handled her many varied roles of social media coordinator, website design, registration form creation, registrar, database maintainer, and the new volunteer identification google document.  

David Dalrymple added team recruitment to his usual jobs of route consolidation, changes, statistics, and general logistics. Emily O’Hara wrapped a tremendous number of spare gifts and did her usual great job of cataloging all of them.

Bedford Community Santa also thanks Boy Scout Troop 194 for providing set-up labor and transportation on Gift Drop Day and clean-up day. Will Paton, Gray Hannigan, Athelney Woolnough, David Dalrymple, and Andrew Pasciuto provided Christmas Eve set up. Jim Paton, Deborah Genetti, Douglas and David Dalrymple handled Christmas Eve check-in and clean-up.  

The John Glenn Middle School was quiet by 8:45 p.m. with all but one team having finished cleaning up, leaving by 8 p.m. The last team came home at 8:13 p.m.

Christine Smith, Russell Bryan, James Bryan, Allan Coady, Will Paton, and David Dalrymple handled clean-up day, putting all the elements away for another year.

A special shout out goes to Lapels, which handles the Bedford Community Santa cleaning and storage needs for the Santa suits and accessories. They have been very accommodating to Santa’s needs during the last few years. 

Bedford Community Santa gives grateful thanks to Anthony Terrasi, who for many years has carefully cleaned and styled the wigs and beards. 

Special thanks also go to Cliff and Carol Washer for providing storage for the program’s materials and giving access to it on short notice.  

Thank you to the Bedford School Department and the Town of Bedford for the use of the John Glenn Middle School. The efforts and helpfulness of janitors Andrew Pasciuto, Greg Barry, and Brian Sheehan are greatly appreciated.

Bedford Community Santa also thanks Gene Kalb and the Bedford Citizen in conjunction with Bedford TV for graciously including this program in their podcast series “Bedford Explained.”

In addition, Bedford Community Santa thanks other volunteers who offered their time and talent, although the organization wasn’t able to take advantage of their kindness due to mismatch of volunteers and the work to be done. 

Bedford Community Santa is hoping for a full-strength program in 2023 when all the public health concerns that have been in our world during the last three years are firmly in the rearview mirror.  

Bedford Community Santa says, “Thank you Bedford for your support during this holiday season and for being flexible during this time of uncertainty.”