By Jordan J. Phelan
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT — ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Newport House, not a creature was stirring. . . well, except for the band of holiday elves rushing door to door to secretly deliver handpicked items, knickknacks, and goodies all bundled in custom holiday sacks.
That was the sight Newport House resident Mary Hall said she caught a glimpse of mere hours before Christmas Eve became Christmas Day, along with the sounds of feet rushing quickly in and out in the hopes of avoiding detection. And when she took a look down, Hall made the sweetest of all discoveries: a personal stocking full of thoughtful offerings perched up against the hallway wall.
“It was wonderful,” Hall said. “We needed something like that.”
But she wasn’t the only recipient of a Secret Santa’s love and care that evening — a total of 44 residents spanning two of the facility’s buildings all received a trove of items, which included a handwritten card from the Newport Montessori School, gift certificates, stuffed animals, flowers, candy, raisins, bottles of water, crossword puzzles, word searches, coloring books, bubbles, lanyards, a magazine, a bag, and a bag clip.
And she wasn’t the only one who found the gesture truly moving. Up and down the hallway — as snow could be seen falling outside through the nearby windows in true Christmas story fashion Saturday morning — doors were swung open, smiles were adorned, and hearts were warmed.
“It brought tears of joy to my eyes,” said fellow Newport House resident Karlie Karberry. “It’s like yesterday I was having a sluggish day and just feeling depressed. And then I come home to the gifts by my door and it just brought tears of joy to me. I mean how could anyone ever do this for me?”
“It just made you laugh and warmed your heart,” said Cory DuPont. “It even gave you a giggle. Like when you saw the bubbles , you knew that a kid was the one that helped put this together. Just to see that was amazing.”
“It was such a pleasant surprise. We have such gratitude for such thoughtfulness,” said Cheri Gassett. “It was especially nice because. . . in my family, years ago, it wasn’t adults, it was all for the kids. So to come back and have a stocking was so much fun.”
The one item in particular that stood out to all was individual holiday cards made and handwritten by students at the Newport Montessori School.
“It was nice to see that when you opened the card that a kid wrote ‘Merry Christmas,’” DuPont said.
“That warmed your heart,” another resident added.
While the identity of those behind the kind gift giving remains unknown, residents suspect there must be “many Santas” in order to pull off something of this magnitude.
“We had a lot of Santas here,” Hall said. “They put a lot of work into it.”
But one thing is for sure.
“The whole thing just made everybody’s heart smile,” Gassett said.
Karberry added: “This is probably going to be talked about forever.”
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