A gifting tradition changes hands

MILLERTON  — After three decades of running Adopt-a-Family, which supplies holiday gifts to families in need, Stacey Moore is passing the program to the village’s North East Community Center (NECC), to be run by Family Program Director Jessica Raymond.

Adopt-a-family has become a Millterton tradition, began as so many small town organizations do: Individuals saw a problem and decided to do something about it. 

When the late Marilyn Najdek, former mayor of Millerton and mother of Millerton Mayor Mayor Jenn Najdek,  was director of the Astor Head Start, she saw children in need, and she and her best friend Stacy Moore expanded the Presbyterian Food Basket program to include toys and clothing at Christmas time. 

The donations, most of which were new and contributed by local businesses, would be set the space up like a store, so primary caretakers could “shop” for their children’s Christmas.

The program became an annual Millerton community tradition, operating with a handful of volunteers: Moore, Vicki Moore and Deb Phillips registered families and accepted donations at Moore and More  while Carol Dean, Monica Barlow and Pam Malarchuk managed the “shopping” at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex, supplying toys, games, clothing and funds to some 250 children each year.

Of Moore, Najdek said: “She’s the Silent Santa, really, for everybody. She doesn’t like a lot of accolades and to be acknowledged for all the good things she’s done. There aren’t very many people left in this world that want to do really good things but want zero acknowledgement for it.”

Najdek recalls seeing her mother and Moore  “some nights, 7 or 8 o’clock, poring over lists; on the weekend, making sure that the family that couldn’t get to shop had their bags.

“You’d get a last-minute call the day before Christmas: Somebody’s house burned down, or somebody lost their job, and they’d missed the signup. Word would spread,” and Moore would reach out to them.

“She she would have bags of clothes and toys and even food baskets. She would call me or my mother and there would be a last-minute, ‘Hey do you have a basket or can you put one together?’”

Relishing the memories, Najdek said: “To me, those are the things that feel really good. Somebody comes and they’re like, ‘Oh my God. I had no idea.’ And they want to hug you and they start crying and you start crying and everybody’s crying.”

As a realist, Najdek said: “You can’t change everything, but if you can effect change little by little... I think that’s kind of what Adopt-a-Family is for: this little kind of bright sunshine of hope that you aren’t in it alone and there are people that care.  I hope that that’s still the feeling that they will try to have when the Community Center takes over.” 

She concluded: “I can’t  say enough about Stacey and all the  good she’d been over the years.  She’s helped make Millerton a better place, but she’d not want anyone to say that about her.”

Whenever Moore has spoken about the program, she acknowledges the others, including community donors and stalwarts Michele Haab, Karen McGinnness, Andrea MacArthur, Brenda Irish, Bill Anstett, Bob Jenks, Larry Eckler, Mike and Toni Reynolds, Lenny Morrison, Ed Watson, Penny Warren and Louise Meryman.  

Before COVID-19 shut down the “North Pole” shopping experience in the Annex,  Rob Cooper and Billy Nichols would fill a pickup truck full of balls and other athletic equipment.

Oblong Books’ Dick Hermans was similarly motivated, saying: “Stacey’s work on this is really remarkable because here is an individual person who made something happen that affected a whole lot of people, generations of people. If we all had that motivation, what a world it would be.”

Now, NECC’s Raymond will be working to fill those huge Santa boots, saying:  “We are very honored to ‘adopt’ Adopt-a-Family from Stacey, to whom we have referred families over the years. And we look forward to keeping this community tradition alive.” 

She is anxious to work with any in the community who wish to contribute or suggest names of children whose holidays could be brightened by a little help.

To learn more, call Raymond at 518-789-4259, ext. 105. New toys and games may be brought to NECC at  51 South Center St.