Caring is channeled in gifts as donations flood into aid grief-stricken Connecticut

People arrive for a prayer service at Newtown United Methodist, which has been flooded with gifts and condolences from across the country.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

People arrive for a prayer service at Newtown United Methodist, which has been flooded with gifts and condolences from across the country.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The closets are jam-packed with boxes of prayer shawls, the pastor’s office is overrun with sympathy cards that arrive by the hundreds, at least four boxes of teddy bears await distribution, and the hallways have barely enough wall space for all the construction-paper posters.

And still the deliveries keep coming. Candles and music CDs. Christmas ornaments and memorial bracelets.

Sympathizers from across the country have been mailing gifts and condolences to Newtown United Methodist Church, a half mile away from Sandy Hook School, where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults on Dec. 14.

Church leaders Amy and Jay Thomas are in the middle of it all, helping to comfort the afflicted and to distribute the donations.

A church in Texas sent 3,200 blue rubber bracelets reading “God is big enough.” Those are being distributed at the entrance to the church, where mourners have been trickling in for the last nine days seeking solace and a quiet place to pray.

Other churches and individuals sent thousands of sympathy cards. Volunteers on Friday began tucking them into church bulletins slated for distribution at Sunday services.

Packages addressed to specific families will be screened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation before they can be sent along.

The Thomases and other church leaders still haven’t decided what to do with the hundreds of prayer shawls that now fill 11 boxes and plastic totes in a storage closet near the entrance to the church’s nursery school.

A volunteer is surrounded by tables full of donated toys that await sorting at the town hall. At Newtown United Methodist Church, hundreds of prayer shawls fill a storage closet, and the donations keep coming.

Friday afternoon, the post office delivered 17 more large boxes with return addresses in Indiana, North Carolina, Maryland, and Missouri. 

UPS still hadn’t arrived with its Friday delivery, and international mail probably won’t start arriving until after Christmas.

“The challenge is ‘What do we do with all this?’ We don’t want boxes left in a closet,” said Mr. Thomas, who is on the staff-parish relations committee. “People sent this for a reason, and we have to find a way to get it to the people who need it.”

His wife, the church’s treasurer, said the outpouring has been overwhelming.

“We’re asking people to please donate to social service agencies in their own communities in honor of the children and teachers and victims here, said Mrs. Thomas, who grew up in Fertigs, Pa., north of Pittsburgh.

It’s touching, and appreciated, that so many people feel compelled to do something to help, but what Newtown needs most of all is prayer, the Thomases said.

A Sandy Hook resident wears a hand-decorated sweatshirt in support of his town while visiting a memorial to the shooting victims. Visitors from around the world have arrived to offer their sympathy.

“Pray that something good can somehow come out of this,” said Mr. Thomas, 53. 

“I don’t know what that something good would look like. Just somehow something good has to come of this senseless act.”

Mr. Thomas, who grew up in Colegrove, Pa., near Bradford, Pa., sat with his wife in the church library on Friday to recount how they’ve been spending their time since last Friday: nearly every waking hour either at the church or at their jobs.

Mrs. Thomas, 51, first learned of the shooting from her boss at the home heating oil company where she is a part-time employee. He told her he had seen a SWAT team, ambulances, and scores of police cars head toward Newtown as he was en route to the office in nearby Southbury.

It wasn’t until she got home at 11:30 a.m. that she realized how severe it was. She headed immediately to the church, where the Red Cross was setting up a base where first responders could eat, rest, and decompress.

No one came.

“All the first responders wanted to stay” at the local firehouse, where families were being reunited with surviving children, Mrs. Thomas said. “They didn’t want to leave.”

The thought of it is heartbreaking, the Thomases said.

“There comes a point in time when no more kids are coming out of the school and parents are still standing there waiting,” Mr. Thomas said.

When no first responders showed up, the Red Cross delivered supplies to the firehouse and Mrs. Thomas transformed the church basement into a quiet zone for parishioners and community members to find respite from the weather and the throngs of reporters gathered outside.

Since then, the Thomases have helped organize a prayer vigil and a church family dinner. They’ve sorted donations, greeted visitors, handled media inquiries, consoled neighbors, directed out-of-town volunteers, and ensured that the church’s two pastors are getting enough food and rest to be able to support parishioners and community members.

Said the Rev. Mel Kawakami, senior pastor, “They are laypeople who, in moments of crisis, rise to the occasion and take things off my plate. They show caring for the world, but they also show caring for me.”

Mr. Thomas said his goal last week was to welcome everyone who wants to comfort or be comforted.

“We’re a Methodist church, but your faith association ends at the curb. We are a place for all faiths to come. It’s a place for services and a place of quiet where you can sit down and reflect,” he said.

People of all faiths have been streaming into the church, many in tears. Some have come from as far as Wales and Costa Rica.

“This is a horrific tragedy that affected so many people. It’s young children that were killed, and a lot of people have small children and never think that anything like this is going to happen, but this could have happened anywhere,” Mr. Thomas said.

The Thomases said that keeping busy is helping them get through the sadness that envelops this town. They say they’re still in shock and that the grief hasn’t hit yet. At least not full on.

The tears still come at unexpected moments.

The Thomases, like the other members of their church, have the support of a nation to help them through.

A message of support hangs over donated toys in Newtown, Conn. Officials are overwhelmed by the amount and struggle to distribute the gifts.

There are the crayon drawings of angels by children of Pikeville United Methodist Church in Kentucky.

From Brushy Creek Baptist Church in South Carolina are several bright yellow posters with messages such as “My heart breaks for y’all,” and “Our prayers are continuous for each family in your community.”

From 12th Street United Methodist Church in Huntingdon, Pa.: “You are not alone in your grief. Our church is heartsick and devastated with the tragedy to your loved ones and community.”

And from little ones nationwide: varying messages of “Sory,” and “Sorrey” in a pile with other cards simply stating “Merry Christmas” from children too young to understand.

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Tracie Mauriello is Washington bureau chief for the Post-Gazette.

Contact Tracie Mauriello at: tmauriello@post-gazette.com or 703-996-9292.