Mayor and his "elves" spread Christmas cheer in Sea Isle City

When he first took office in 1993, Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio wanted to help out the families in town that he knew were struggling financially at Christmas.

“What motivated me is that I saw families in Sea Isle at the time that didn’t have anything under the tree and didn’t have enough food. It was a difficult time,” Desiderio recalled.

All these years later, there is still a need for Christmas presents under the tree and food on the table for some local families. So, as he has done every year since 1993, Desiderio and his army of volunteer “elves” loaded up boxes of toys and food on Monday and distributed them to members of the community just before Christmas.

Truly a communitywide effort, the 33rd annual Mayor’s Holiday Toy & Food Drive involves donations from local civic groups, charitable organizations, businesses and residents.

“We make people happy every year. That’s a great feeling for all of us,” Desiderio said. “I thank all of those who donated, because we couldn’t do it without them. It’s really great and satisfying to see the faces of the people when we deliver the food and toys.”

With its collection of multimillion-dollar beachfront homes, trendy boutiques and iconic restaurants and nightclubs, Sea Isle is mainly known as an upscale summer vacation retreat. However, there are always local families that need a helping hand during the holidays, the mayor noted.

“You know, you’ll hear that Sea Isle is a wealthy community, that Sea Isle’s got million-dollar homes. But there are people in Sea Isle City who are not as fortunate as others,” he said.

As the volunteers deliver the toys and food around town each Christmas, they are often greeted with smiles and hugs from people receiving the gifts.

“We make so many people happy,” Desiderio said.

    Mayor Leonard Desiderio, in red shirt, is accompanied by his "elves" at City Hall.
  

Altogether, boxes of food and toys and wrapped presents were delivered to nine Sea Isle families on Monday, just in time for Christmas. Some local senior citizens also received donations.

“People were overly generous this year,”Pattiann Ponichtera, the mayor’s assistant who organizes the food and toy drive each year, said of the outpouring of donations from the community. “There is a need to bridge the gap this year with food and to take care of families.”

The community’s generosity during the food and toy drive is reflected by people like 82-year-old Sis Borden, who usually singlehandedly wraps all of the gifts each year. Desiderio likes to call Borden his “Super Elf” for all of her hard work during the drive.

However, Borden was feeling under the weather this year, so other volunteers stepped in to wrap the gifts, Ponichtera said.

“It only took 10 of us to do what she does,” Ponichtera said of Borden’s legendary contributions to the food and toy drive.

    Gift bags and boxes are loaded up for delivery around town.
  

Also stepping in to give a hand in Sea Isle this year was another Christmas superstar. As the volunteers were loading boxes of food and toys into vans parked in front of City Hall, Santa Claus suddenly appeared to help out.

“Merry Christmas, everyone,” Santa said while he greeted all of the volunteers and carried some of the boxes ready for delivery.

    Pattiann Ponichtera, the mayor's assistant, organizes the holiday drive each year.
  

    Santa is joined by Mark Evangelisti, of Sea Isle City's Public Works Department, and Mayor Leonard Desiderio.
  

    Gift bags on a table at City Hall are part of the donations that were received for the holiday food and toy drive.