November 25, 2005

Volunteers of the Month:

Dynamic mother-daughter duo fill holiday baskets for low-income teens
                
By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Christmas is the season of giving. And as the holidays quickly approach, an Almaden mother-daughter team is stockpiling new gifts. But the items aren’t for the family and friends of Arlene and Mary Shaughnessy. The items that will fill brightly wrapped baskets and sports bags are for inner city teens, a group mostly forgotten.

Mother daughter team Mary and Arlene Shaughnessy donate their time to the organization Gifts for Teens, providing gift baskets and sports bags stuffed with treasured teenage gifts for inner city kids. Photo by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

The congenial mother/daughter team’s efforts for the American Association of University Women [AAUW] Gifts for Teens began innocently enough. Ten years ago, Arlene’s husband, Jack, had recently retired and began volunteering his time at Sacred Heart Community Service [SHCS] helping at the organization’s Food Pantry.

He heard of a need for clothing and enlisted his wife and daughter. The dynamic duo sprang into action contacting friends and family. Mary works at Cisco and broadcast the need accumulating 2,000 bags of clothing. Then Arlene and Mary heard about Gifts for Teens.

“There are Toys for Tots and food giveaways,” said Mary Shaughnessy. “Teenagers are groups of individuals who are often forgotten at Christmas. They are at such an impressionable age that to have somebody out there who cares and has taken the effort to make sure they have a good Christmas is incredible. And the day the parents come pick up the gifts is like Santa’s Village.”

In 1997, the first brightly wrapped gift baskets were given to 21 teens featuring items such as scarves, jewelry, cosmetics, socks, candy and other teenage treasures. Each year there were additional donations and volunteers and more baskets were made.

In 2003, AAUW members and Almaden friends created 259 baskets—206 for girls and 53 for boys—whose families live downtown and receive support from SHCS. In 2004, a goal of 300 baskets quickly turned into a whopping 936 gifts by the generous support of donators and dedicated volunteers like Arlene and Mary.

“Arlene and Mary are so neat,” said AAUW organizer of Gifts for Teens Elaine Benoit. “I am so impressed with their enthusiasm, and they have raised considerable funds and garnered numerous donations for the project. They are dynamic, articulate, involved with the community, busy working women and fun to work with.”

Gifts for Teens volunteers take a moment for a photo op at 2004 gift making extravaganza. Top row: Almaden residents Rita Skillman, Bryan DePalma [Arlene and Mary’s nephew], Arlene Shaughnessy, Sue Nichols, Tracy Fant, Helen Burrows, Mia Shaughnessy, Mary Shaughnessy. Bottom row: Diane Bromstead and AAUW Gifts for Teens organizer Elaine Benoit. All donations are tax deductible. Photos courtesy of AAUW’s Gifts for Teens

Gifts for Teens goal this year is 700 gift baskets and sport bags for inner city teenagers. The majority of the gifts are received by SHCS clients but Gifts for Teens has also committed to provide gifts to the homeless and runaways at the Bill Wilson Center. The Rotary Club of San Jose Endowment has donated $5,000 to buy watches and radios for the gifts.

But even with such generous gifts, many that Mary solicited from her vendor contacts, her that donations have dropped off by as much as half from last year because of the multiple disasters the world has witnessed recently. The Shaughnessy’s are urgently requesting that anyone who can give do so.

Whether a company who can contribute logo items packed away in a closet or an individual with just one item or five, the mother daughter team urges everyone to help who can. They only request that the items are new except for jewelry, which the dedicated volunteers sanitize and repackage for the teens.

“Cash is king though,” said Arlene. “With our contacts with vendors we can buy at cost. Even if it’s just $5, it all adds up. Or if someone would like to fill one basket, we can do it for $35.”

If a cash donation doesn’t work in someone’s budget, a search through a closet will probably find a stash of new objects that you’ve kept but haven’t used. Donations can be gift items of cosmetics, games, clothes, journals, sports bags and frames, anything a teenager would cherish. Cash donations allow Gifts for Teens to buy watches, radios, cameras, candy, books, CD’s, grooming supplies, movie tickets and the like for the inner city teens.

Companies can contribute by donating surplus business promotional items like duffel bags, caps, Frisbees, T-shirts, bags, pens and gift certificates.

All donations are needed by Dec.10, and if you need someone to pick up the donations, Jack Shaughnessy would be happy to do so.

Gifts for Teens’ bounty of baskets and sports bags for inner-city kids in 2004.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” said Arlene. “Last year the mothers said ‘my children wouldn’t get anything for Christmas if it wasn’t for Gifts for Teens.’ Knowing it could brighten someone’s heart and make their holiday’s special makes it all worthwhile. And the kids know that someone out there besides their moms and dads really love them.”

So who are this dynamic duo of a mother and daughter? Arlene was born and raised in Mamaroneck, NY. She and Jack, her husband of 43 years, moved to San Jose with their children Michael and Mary 37 years ago. Retiring from her catering business, she now works part-time at Williams Sonoma. Mary has worked at Cisco for the past 10 years and is now in the human resources department. Last month she moved into a new house in Almaden and has just announced her engagement.

And of course, the dynamic duo will be spending their holidays together…after they have brightened the lives of the inner city teens of San Jose.

Donations of teen-appropriate gifts or cash may be dropped off at AAUW, 1165 Minnesota Ave., San Jose 95125 or call 268-8568 or 997-2412. Pick up is available.