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Conard ‘Holiday Helpers’ Make a Major Difference for West Hartford Families

Conard Holiday Helpers fill a conference room with bags and boxes of toys and other holiday gifts for needy students in the community. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Conard’s Junior Class Board program leads the effort to attract sponsors to purchase holiday gifts for elementary school students throughout West Hartford Public Schools.

Conard Holiday Helpers fill a conference room with bags and boxes of toys and other holiday gifts for needy students in the community. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Conard Holiday Helpers fill a conference room with bags and boxes of toys and other holiday gifts for needy students in the community. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

By Ronni Newton

There are 76 West Hartford children who will open wrapped packages of toys and clothes this holiday season thanks to the generosity of Conard “Holiday Helpers.”

The annual program is sponsored by the junior class board, under the guidance of faculty advisors Cindy Vranich and Ashley Theroux. It serves as the annual class service project.

“It’s grown tremendously,” Vranich said of the five-year old program. That first year there were 12 West Hartford students supported by the program and this year there are 76 who will benefit.

Right after Thanksgiving break Vranich’s classroom turned into a hub of activity. During the times she wasn’t teaching English, students from the junior class took over the desks and floors, turning the area into a wrapping station.

Bags full of wrapped gifts soon filled a conference room across from the Conard office.

“We ask people to sponsor a kid,” Vranich said. The names – all kept anonymous – are provided by social workers at the town’s elementary schools after being identified by the social workers as well as teachers and nurses. Sponsors are given a list of what the child needs (coat, boots, other clothing) as well as a wish list of toys and games.

The intent is to have the priority needs filled first, and then add toys or other items from the wish list. In the past each sponsored child has been given between five and eight gifts, at a total cost of $100 to $150, Vranich said.

Vranich said the impact of the program was never so clear as in a letter she received last year from a parent whose child had been sponsored by the Conard Holiday Helpers. The letter said that before those gifts, there was nothing under the tree. “You were the only ones who gave the kids Christmas,” said the letter.

Sponsorships are often shared, Vranich said. Her classes combined to sponsor two children, and other teachers or organizations have done the same thing.

“The Conard community is wonderful,” Vranich said. In September she was already getting questions about signing up to sponsor a student.

Those who are not able to commit to a full sponsorship can help in other ways such as donating wrapping paper or tissues paper, boxes, or money to be used to purchase additional gifts.

On Monday, Dec. 19, the social workers begin arriving at Conard to pick up the bags and boxes that are filled with the donated gifts, bringing Christmas and other holidays to students in the West Hartford community.

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Boxes and bags of clothes and gifts purchased by Conard Holiday Helpers. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

Boxes and bags of clothes and gifts purchased by Conard Holiday Helpers. Photo credit: Ronni Newton

A conference room at Conard is packed full of gifts for the 76 West Hartford students who will receive them from Conard Holiday Helpers. Photo courtesy of Cindy Vranich

A conference room at Conard is packed full of gifts for the 76 West Hartford students who will receive them from Conard Holiday Helpers. Photo courtesy of Cindy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich's classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich’s classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich's classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich’s classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich's classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich’s classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich's classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich’s classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich's classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

Conard Holiday Helpers wrap gifts in English teacher Cindy Vranich’s classroom. Photo credit: CIndy Vranich

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