Meet four T&G Santa donors and their stories why they give each season

Linda Friedman has some yearly Christmas traditions she always looks forward to: using her four ovens to bake a few dozen cookies to hand out to her family and friends, and donating some money to the T&G Santa Fund.

Since the late 1970s, Friedman has made a donation to the fundraiser not only to help make sure kids have gifts to open Christmas morning but to also honor the memory of loved ones who have passed. This year she donated in memory of her parents and husband.

“I don’t give Christmas presents,” Friedman, who lives in Holden, said. “I believe in giving to charity and donations…and I make cookies and I give them away. That’s my Christmas present.”

Over the years, Friedman has donated both her money and her time, getting involved with local charities where she said she’s heard about people who never received Christmas gifts.

Choosing gifts — particularly Barbie dolls from a Sears catalog — for birthdays and Christmases was a “special” experience she had growing up, and something she cherished, she said. She still has some of the Barbies she received when she was younger.

And that experience is something she wants kids today to have as well.

“Especially children in this day and age,” Friedman said. “We have to focus on the positive and neat things like Santa Fund.”

Generosity of donors big and small is critical

The T&G Santa Fund is now in its 85th year providing toys to needy children in Central Massachusetts for the holidays.

The fund works with the United Way of Central Massachusetts and 20 nonprofit agencies across the region. This year, it will provide holiday cheer to 7,813 local children. That's up 13% from 6,901 children last year.

It is thanks to the generosity of donors from all walks of life, from well-known philanthropists to everyday readers, that the fund has been able to assist all in need, without turning anyone away. But lately, costs have been increasing faster than the pace of donations, making readers' generosity more critical than ever.

Helping keep granddaughter's memory alive

Maureen Lemieux, the grandmother of Holly Piirainen, has made a donation to the fund each year for the last 29 years in honor of her granddaughter.

Holly Piirainen, whose case has remained unsolved the last 30 years, loved Christmas, Lemieux said. And by donating money, she helps keep the memory of Holly alive, she said, and makes sure other kids have a Merry Christmas.

"Every year, I always read everybody who donated and who they donated in memory of and it was just something that I kind of thought I wanted to do some time, but you just get busy with your life, and you don't think about it until you start reading the names the next year," she said. "After we lost Holly, I said I was definitely going to do that."

Donates in memory of grandson

Lynda Chysna has been making donations to the Santa Fund every year since 1999 in honor of her grandson, Cody, who passed away six hours after he was born.

“It’s pretty sad. He would have been 24 this year,” Chysna, who lives in Westborough, said. “But we figure maybe at least one up one other child can have something for Christmas.”

But over the years, her family has grown, and she now has seven other grandchildren with whom she can look forward to celebrating the holiday.

And her family still works to make sure other kids can have a happy holiday with gifts to unwrap on Christmas morning.

In addition to the Santa Fund, Chysna said her daughter, who works closely with the autistic community, recently spent time wrapping presents to be handed out to other kids.

“What they're doing is special too,” she said. “As long as everybody can just give a little bit, you know?”

No longer in Worcester but still a Santa donor

For Tom Donahue, the T&G Santa Fund is a way to keep connections to his hometown, even from thousands of miles away in Bokeelia, Florida.

Growing up in Great Brook Valley in the 1960s, Donahue said he and his seven other siblings were involved in their community and church. He and his brother, Mike, also worked as newspaper carriers as kids at the Telegram & Gazette.

“Coming from a family of eight children — my father graduated from Holy Cross — but I mean, just the same, you can't even imagine trying to feed eight mouths,” Donahue said. “Probably from the time that we were 10 years old, 11 years old, we put shoes on with money made from being paper carriers.”

But through the T&G, Donahue and his brother didn’t just find employment but fond memories as well.

Whether it was things like getting watches and transistor radios, or even a trip to New York City for soliciting enough sales for the paper, or attending the annual Christmas party thrown just for the carriers at a theater downtown on Main Street.

“Kids from all over the city would come, and there'd be prizes at that too and things to eat,” Donahue said. “It was a spectacular event for kids from the projects and from all over the city to go.”

And while he may not be soliciting paper sales for prizes and trips, he has still found a way to stay connected to the paper and the city through the Santa Fund, helping make sure kids in places like where he grew up and throughout the city have presents Christmas morning.

“As far as the Gazette Santa Fund, I've always made donations to the Gazette Santa Fund,” he said. “The T&G made it very, very possible for two kids from Great Brook Valley to have a few bucks in their pocket and have a pretty nice childhood.”

How to donate to the T&G Santa Fund

There are multiple ways to donate:

1. Go to telegram.com/santa and click on the "MAKE A DONATION" link to donate with your credit card.

2. Print and complete the coupon in the T&G Santa ad in today's newspaper and send it with a check or money order to Telegram & Gazette Santa Fund, c/o Berkshire Bank, PO Box 15020, Worcester, MA 01615-0020.

Thank you very much for your donation.

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: T&G Santa donors share stories of giving over the years