Newtown "Angels" Assemble More Than 200 Christmas Dinners For Others

NEWTOWN, PA — More than 200 will be fed on Christmas Day thanks to a band of Christmas angels in Newtown.

On Christmas Eve Day, 35 volunteers met at the American Legion on Linden Avenue to assemble meals for people living in the motels along Route One, a handful of families from the Council Rock School District, the Code Blue emergency shelter at Congregation Shir Ami and for the Bucks County Homeless Shelter in Levittown.

The angels, including members of the Newtown Rotary Club and the Newtown Presbyterian Church, spent about two hours assembling the meals, which include chicken and eggplant parmigiana, roast beef, pork, gravy, green beans, roasted potatoes, a large salad and cookies and cream puffs for dessert.

Among the volunteers were Newtown Township Supervisor Kyle Davis, Zebra-Striped Whale owner Shari Faden Donahue, Council Rock School Board member and State Representative-elect Kristin Marcell, financial advisor Rick Rogers and the Rev. Tim Smith from Crossing Community Church.

“People could be out doing last minute shopping or just chilling with a cup of eggnog. Instead they are here volunteering and that’s awesome,” said Davis. “I love all the support we get from the community. It’s beautiful.”

Volunteering their time for others on Christmas Eve Day. (photo by Jeff Werner)

Some of the angels will also be donating an hour or two of their time on Christmas Day to feed the homeless at the Family Service Association’s Homeless Shelter in Levittown.

“It felt great seeing everyone there helping out,” said organizer Paul Salvatore. “These are people I know. And they were there putting service above self. It makes my Christmas.”

The meals were again generously made and donated by another angel, local chef and caterer Joe Garvey, who helped oversee the packaging process on Christmas Eve Day. His donation was supplemented by donations from the Newtown Presbyterian Church and from other donations.

“I hope it gives people a smile,” said Garvey, who has been giving back every Christmas since he owned the Brick Hotel. “Things are tough out there right now and the forecast isn’t great. Doing this makes my Christmas to be honest. I get more satisfaction out of this than anything else in my life.”

Joe Garvey, Paul Salvatore and Kyle Davis. (photo by Jeff Werner)

“What people need to understand about Joe is that he did this while he had multiple orders to get out that day,” said Salvatore. “In between those orders he still finds time to feed more people.”

Salvatore started the effort 38 years ago when he owned a restaurant in Wrightstown and organized Christmas dinner as a way to give back to the community. He invited children living at the Bethana Home to a free meal on Christmas Day.

The meal was inspired by an early memory of his father who one Christmas brought home an orphan from the Catholic Home For Destitute Children and gave him a place to stay over the holidays.

The napkin crew. (photo by Jeff Werner)

Salvatore, who was six years old at the time, was envious of all the gifts and attention the boy was receiving and let his thoughts be known. Seeing a chance to teach his son a lesson, his dad took young Paul to the orphanage to see where the boy lives.

“We went into the building and you walked up the steps. It was very stark, very bleak,” said Salvatore. “At the top of the steps was a large room with cots lined up like a dormitory. My father took me over and said, ‘You see this? This is how he sleeps. And you see this box? That’s everything he has.’

“That made such an impression on me. I never forgot that. I said if I could help kids I would do it,” said Salvatore.

Council Rock School Board member and State Representative-elect Kristin Marcell, right, helps assemble food trays.

He hosted the kids from Bethana every Christmas Day from 1985 to 1992 at his restaurant. In 1992 he relocated the dinner to the Newtown Presbyterian Church after leaving the restaurant business.

When Bethana closed its group home on Second Street Pike, Salvatore decided to continue the Christmas dinner tradition, opening up the event to his Angel Tree recipients and senior citizens living in the Newtown area. About six years ago, the decision was made to relocate the dinner to the Lower Bucks County Homeless Shelter

“I’ve been doing this now for 38 years. I remember so many people coming up to me over the years being so grateful. But I have to tell them, ‘Don’t thank me. I thank you. You made my Christmas.’

“I’m just glad I can be part of this,” said Salvatore. “I’m lucky enough to be the catalyst in that I put together the pieces that connect, but I can’t do this without the pieces.

Members of the Newtown Rotary Club loaded down with donated Angel Tree gifts.

“I want the light to shine on the people who make this happen. I’m lucky enough to know them and be friends with them. I’m lucky enough to be able to help them and in turn help other people,” said Salvatore. “And sometimes you help people you never even see, but you know you’ve made a difference,” he said. “That’s the Christmas giving experience and you can’t beat that.”

The meal is an extension of Salvatore’s Angel Tree project, which delivered more than 1,000 gifts this year to children and families living in the Council Rock School District.

Through the Angel Tree project, which Salvatore has organized for the past two decades, more than 200 children in the Council Rock School District will have a merrier Christmas this year with gifts to open and enjoy.

It all started after Thanksgiving when three angel trees temporarily took up residence at the Newtown Post Office, the Free Library of Northampton Township and the Newtown Presbyterian Church.

In early December, with the help of the Newtown Rotary Club he helped collect the more than 1,000 donated gifts and brought them to the Newtown Presbyterian Church where teams of sorters made sure each gift would find its way to the right family and child.

On hand to help with the massive sorting operation inside the church’s Ettenger Hall were members of the church’s youth group, Rotarians along with volunteers from the church.

Rotarians Stephanie Eubanks and Mark Craig pick up donated Angel Tree gifts at the Newtown Post Office.

Salvatore got involved in the Angel Tree project more than two decades ago when the Northampton Women’s Club needed extra help with the project.

“We took the Newtown Borough, Newtown Township, Wrightstown and Upper Makefield area and they took Northampton,” said Salvatore. “That worked okay for a couple of years before their group disbanded and we took over the whole thing.”

Salvatore, working with the school nurses, recruited volunteers from the community to continue the effort. “It’s just an amazing project and the nurses and social workers should get all the credit in the world,” he said.