Maya McFadden photos
Sarah Wall, Catherine Thigpen, Honda Smith, Rev. D’Hati T. Burgess, Richard Furlow, Carolyn Kinder, and Jalmar De Dios at The Shack.
EastCoastin's Sal Fusco drops off Winter Wonderland toy donation.
Three community-boosting miracles — including an oversized check from a power company and a truck full of toys from a bike life group — showed up at The Shack to help the West Rock community center get in the holiday spirit.
First came a $3,000 programming grant from the power company, United Illuminating (UI). Then came a donation of hundreds of toys from the local bike organization EastCoastin for The Shack’s upcoming Winter Wonderland toy giveaway. And third came a food delivery from two New Haven natives looking to give back and keep local youth fed.
Those three miracles came in that order Tuesday morning and afternoon for West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith to accept and continue to serve her neighborhood with programming, holiday gifts, and daily meals at 333 Valley St.
Maya McFadden Photo
UI’s Government & Community Programs Specialist Sarah Wall and Jalmar De Dios joined Smith and The Shack team Tuesday morning to hand off a $3,000 check to support a variety of programming at The Shack, which over the course of the past year has become a safe haven for dozens of youth, adults, and seniors in the West Hills neighborhood. Click here, here, here, and here for previous Independent stories about events at The Shack.
De Dios and Wall noted the many community members who often talk about The Shack and how it’s helped them.
“We look for organizations that are doing the work and we want to partner with them,” De Dios said. “We hope that this is the beginning of a longer fruitful partnership.”
Wall thanked The Shack team for their daily work for the community focused on uplifting youth and seniors.
Soon after receiving the gift from UI, The Shack got a delivery of hundreds of toys from EastCoastin leaders Sal Fusco and Gabe Canestri for the third year in a row.
The bike life organization has annually fundraised for Smith’s Winter Wonderland event that puts toys in the hands of hundreds of West Rock/West Hills youth for the Christmas season.
The EastCoastin team delivered more than a dozen bikes and miniature ATVs of all sizes to The Shack to disburse for the holiday event.
Board games, sports balls, dolls, and skateboards were delivered to The Shack in a 8.5‑foot by 20-foot trailer filled to the roof by Fusco and Canestri. They unloaded the truck’s worth of goods into the center’s entertainment room.
Once unloaded the toys and bikes lined the wall of the game room.
Smith, Bryce Barnes, and Ron Huggins.
Finally, Tuesday afternoon was topped off with a final surprise from New Haven native Bryce Barnes, who dropped several bags of food off at The Shack with city youth specialist Ron Huggins.
Barnes was motivated by both Smith’s and Huggins’s dedication to the city’s youth. Huggins and Barnes paid out of pocket to support the community center’s food pantry and snack cart with bags full of chips, soup, and fruit snacks.