BRISTOL — Children from the Head Start program gathered around the Giving Tree at Stop & Shop on Farmington Avenue Tuesday morning for a Christmas preview.

Sen. Chris Murphy said they were maybe the best behaved group of preschoolers he had ever seen.
“I know that from firsthand experience, because I have a 4-year-old that would never sit still for this,” he said, as the children gathered for a group photo in front of the tree full of presents underneath it.

Every year, the supermarket puts up a Christmas tree, known as the Giving Tree, with each paper ornament asking for a toy for a girl or boy in the Head Start program. After collecting donations, the store invited 3- and 4-year-olds in for a party around the tree.

“This is really an amazing time of year,” Murphy said. “This time of year is about celebrating family and friends, and also about giving.”

Gifts were not distributed at the party, explained Nancy Pappas, director of external affairs for the Community Renewal Team, which runs Bristol Head Start. Head Start management and family service workers sort and distribute them.

“They’re given to the parents and then they either go under the tree or Santa gives them out — or whatever the parents’ decision to handle it is.”

“It’s such a generous, giving community to do this for all of the little ones in our program,” said Emily Montgomery, Community Renewal Team director of the early care and education program. “We really want to wish everybody the happiest of holidays, and I know our kids are certainly going to have the best of holidays this year,” she said.

Mayor Ken Cockayne said he first learned about the Giving Tree program at the start of the school year when he went to read stories to children at Head Start’s Lake Avenue location.

“The presents you see here today show Bristol is a giving community — we’re a family community,” he said.
Rick Trotta, customer service manager, and John Tardette, store manager, were both new to the Stop & Shop on Farmington Avenue this year. “I’m just completely blown away by the generosity of the folks in this community,” said Trotta.

“It’s a great store,” added Tardette. “This store does a lot with the town here.”

Sabrina Stewart, from Bristol, was there with her 4-and-a-half-year old daughter Abigail.

“It’s a blessing, an absolute blessing,” Stewart said, noting that she brought her son last year.

“Last year was hard because my mom was really sick. She was generally the one who does Christmas for us because we can’t afford it, and she ended up not being able to get much because she was paying for her chemo treatments. This year my mom’s gone and there’s no one else to help us.”

Stewart said her children “are going to have a Christmas when they otherwise wouldn’t.”

Community Renewal Team’s two Head Start centers in Bristol, located at 254 Lake Ave., and 49 South St., serve low-income preschoolers and their families, offering seven to 10 hours of preschool daily, health screenings, meals and parental support.