By Lisa Capobianco Staff Writer A crowd of families gathered together at the Southington YMCA’s 29th annual Giving Tree ceremony last week, celebrating the spirit of the holiday season while remembering loved ones who have passed on. This year the ceremony at featured a large tree in front of the entrance, which also lit up during the event. Every year the lobby of the YMCA displays a Christmas tree, which displays feathers with the names of loved ones that local residents wish to remember this holiday season. All proceeds benefit the Sioux YMCA in South Dakota. “It is a time to remember what the holiday season is all about—the importance of sharing,” said Susan Skarvinko, the chair of the event. “This is a portion of the country that is poor in material things.” For Reverend Dawn Karlson, the pastor for Youth and Family Ministry at Southington’s First Congregational Church, the celebration served as a reminder of the time she spent with one of the Sioux tribes in 2007. Karlson participated in the service project through Hawking, a non-profit organization in Glastonbury that assists the people of the Lakota (Sioux) Cheyenne River Indian Reservation to meet their needs in education, housing [...]
By Lisa Capobianco Staff Writer A crowd of families gathered together at the Southington YMCA’s 29th annual Giving Tree ceremony last week, celebrating the spirit of the holiday season while remembering loved ones who have passed on. This year the ceremony at featured a large tree in front of the entrance, which also lit up during the event. Every year the lobby of the YMCA displays a Christmas tree, which displays feathers with the names of loved ones that local residents wish to remember this holiday season. All proceeds benefit the Sioux YMCA in South Dakota. “It is a time to remember what the holiday season is all about—the importance of sharing,” said Susan Skarvinko, the chair of the event. “This is a portion of the country that is poor in material things.” For Reverend Dawn Karlson, the pastor for Youth and Family Ministry at Southington’s First Congregational Church, the celebration served as a reminder of the time she spent with one of the Sioux tribes in 2007. Karlson participated in the service project through Hawking, a non-profit organization in Glastonbury that assists the people of the Lakota (Sioux) Cheyenne River Indian Reservation to meet their needs in education, housing [...]