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Action Toy drive missing its 'Mr. Santa Claus' Gloucester Daily Times 7/10/06

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Toy drive missing its “Mr. Santa Claus”

Gloucester Daily Times, July 10, 2006, by Jason Simpson, page A1

Action Inc.’s Project Uplift is getting an early start this year, but it will be without its organizer of 15 years.

William Rochford, executive director of Action Inc. said the non-profit’s Christmas toy drive began early this year when organizers were put in contact with the Reading Fire Department, which had extra toys from its toy drive last year.

When the fire officials heard what Action does, they decided to donate the toys to the program, he said.

“Christmas isn’t that far away, and because of this donation, we’re getting going much earlier,” Rochford said. “We like to take the stress off the parents (whose children receive the toys), and when we start as early as possible, the entire program flows much better.”

Project Uplift, however, will be under some stress as it gets going without organizer Scott Thorndike.

Thorndike died on May 30^th at 76.

Action dedicated its 41^st annual meeting this year to Thorndike. His wife, Betty, accepted an award on Thorndike’s behalf for his tireless work with elder volunteer Services and his coordination of Project Uplift.

 “Scott was a really wonderful person,” Rochford said. “People thought of him as “Mr. Santa Claus,” and its going to be difficult to fill his shoes.”

Thorndike has been credited with the continued success of the program. He was part of every aspect of the program – planning, collecting toys at 25 sites throughout Cape Ann, making sure everyone who requested toys received them and purchasing money orders for food to put in the bags of toys.

Action will miss Thorndike’s presence come Christmas, Rochford said.

Loretta Peres started volunteering for Project Uplift with Thorndike three years ago. She said the toys will still be delivered for Christmas, but it will feel different this year without him.

“He had a gift of talk, he loved having conversations with people,” Peres said. “It was great working with Scott.”

Peres said Thorndike had a ‘calm way about him” nad never got nervous as the deadline approached. His biggest contribution, she said, is that he had all the connections to places to get toys, and when the toys got to the sorting facility, he would let Peres and fellow volunteers Eileen Ryan and Kathy Stewart take over.

“It was such a comfortable environment working with him,” Peres said. “He’s really going to be missed.”