Dover makes care kits for homeless

By Alexander Oliveira
Hometown Weekly Reporter

As part of their Dover Unplugged program, St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church invited members of the congregation and the greater community to fill over 225 care bags for two Boston homeless shelters this past Friday night.

“It’s the giving season” said event organizer Carol Chirico, “and we’ve got the whole community putting their hands together and contributing.”

With the room split into two sections, the care kits were filled based on the needs of the homeless shelters to which the kits were being sent. The first shelter was Boston Healthcare for The Homeless, “which helps rough sleepers,” Chirico explained to the room. “These are people who are sleeping on the streets and don’t take advantage of shelters to get by.” Those bags were filled largely with easily carried, non-perishable and ready-to-eat food, along with toiletries and warm winter clothing like hats, scarves and gloves.

The second group of bags was being sent to Women’s Lunch Place of Greater Boston, which requested only toiletries and winter clothing.

“We’ve been working with these groups for years,” Chirico said.

Finally, off to the side (and a big hit with the kids) was a crafts section where holiday cards and greetings were made and decorated to be placed in the bags.

With Christmas music playing over the speakers, Chirico and other church volunteers shepherded kids and parents alike down the tables and helped them pick the right items to put in each bag. “We’ve never done an event this before, so it’s going to be a bit chaotic,” one volunteer laughed as she helped shuffle some kids down the line.

St. Dunstan’s runs several Dover Unplugged events throughout the year. “It’s a chance to unplug from devices, work and distractions, and just be with the community,” Chirico said. “The idea is to include not just parishioners, but the whole community, too. We have this great space that really just gets used on Sundays, so we decided we may as well get as much out of it as we can.”

Despite some light chaos and a few bags loaded with one too many candy canes, smiles abounded all Friday night, and the air was thick with holiday cheer.