Moms Help Bring Holiday Cheer To Elementary School In Wallingford

WALLINGFORD, CT — Two moms helped bring some extra holiday cheer to E.C. Stevens Elementary School in Wallingford this past season with an event that they hope can become even bigger going forward.

The school’s The Giving Tree donation program was transformed into a holiday shopping experience for families in need just before the holiday recess in December, according to second-grade teacher Beth McLellan.

“The event was a huge success,” McLellan said. “Families were able to gift their children some amazing items. From scooters to skateboards to games and Lego sets. There was such a large variety of items to choose from. I was able to visit with a few families while they arrived and it was nice to see the smiles on their faces.”

McLellan said the event came together when two mothers who previously had students in her class – Marianne Begej and Marissa Tiroletto – reached out to her because they wanted to help families in the school community during the holiday season.

“Marianne and Marissa are true angels,” McLellan said. “As I was driving into work one morning, I received a call from Marissa. She had the idea to make our holiday giving program into a store concept so parents had the true experience of shopping for their children.”

McLellan said she presented the idea to Principal Kristina Kiely, who “loved the idea” and then contacted Tiroletto.

“Both Marissa and Marianne had their children in my class in the past,” McLellan said. “They were always ready to volunteer, send in donations, give their time, and offer a helping hand. I am proud to have had them as parents in my classroom and to now call them friends. Neither have children at Stevens this year, but still wanted to help. They shopped for these gifts and even spent some of their own money out of the goodness of their hearts. Marissa is the manager at East Center Market and also organized our Thanksgiving dinner donations with Marianne this year.”

Plans for the holiday shopping event started to come together while they were organizing the Thanksgiving donations, according to Tiroletto.

“In the fall when the government shut down and SNAP benefits were threatened, Marianne and I began texting about how worried we were for our local students and their families,” Tiroletto said. “Marianne truly is a wonderful person so I knew if anyone would collaborate with me and turn sadness into action, it would be her! She has so many connections within our schools because she’s always dedicated her time to the PTO and school events, on top of being a working sports mom of middle school boys.

“So, this late-night conversation turned into days of texting and calling each other to figure out how to raise funds and food items for families in need. Like she told me just the other day, ‘someone is hungry, we feed them.’ Within a week we were able to provide 60 bags of non-perishable food items and about 40 fresh produce bags for any family within our community in need.”

Tiroletto said that community members, friends, family, and local businesses were “so generous in their donations.”

“We partnered with East Center Market and the Elks to provide 40 full turkey dinners to families in need,” she said. “After all of that, we said OK, what now? Obviously, it felt like we had extra time on our hands and we were lucky enough to have extra funds so we decided to set up a little toy shop for families to come pick out some holiday gifts for their kids. Between the generous donations from the teachers, the shopping we were able to do with our remaining funds, donations from the community, and our own money, we partnered with Beth, Kristina, and Greg to gather several families in need of holiday help and set up a cute toy shop for them to come shop for free.

“I would love to tell you that we had time to plan and organize all of this, but really, it was spur of the moment and we pulled it off thanks to our community and the staff at Stevens, Pond Hill, Dag, and Lyman Hall.”

Tiroletto said there were “a lot of tears” seeing everything come together with the event.

“It was so amazing to finish setting up the room and just take it all in,” she said. “You can’t help but get emotional when you realize how strong and generous the Wallingford community is. Our community, these teachers and school staff members, all stood behind us and helped us pull off an amazing thing for deserving families.”

Sara Fallahi, the K-2 Bilingual Teacher at E.C. Stevens School, works closely with the families of her bilingual students throughout the year and helped nominate families to participate in The Giving Tree program.

Fallahi said the event ended up being held over several days to accommodate families’ work schedules and their ability to secure transportation to the school.

She said there was an “overwhelming response” from the families who participated in the Giving Tree shop.

One family wrote in a letter, “Thank you - There really are no words to express how kind and welcoming you have all been towards my family. Thank you for this. Your generosity and kindness have made us feel so special!”

Fallahi said that based on the number of items in the shop, she was able to invite an additional three families to shop for books, winter clothing, toys, and games.

“Every single family was blown away by the generosity,” she said.

The families thanked both the school and the local agencies that participated in collecting the items for donation, according to Fallahi.

“This year, as a school, our staff came together to spread joy to the families who participated in the Giving Tree,” Fallahi said. “Viewing the plethora of items in the Giving Tree shop brought tears to my eyes and made me so incredibly proud to be a part of Stevens School. Every child deserves a magical holiday, and I can confidently say that through the Giving Tree, several parents were able to provide that to their children during the holiday season. Every Stevens staff member, as well as each local agency that provided donations, helped fulfill the Christmas wishes of several families.”