- September 19, 2024
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Jan Sutton poses in front of the tables of gifts at the Flagler Volunteer Services' Giving Store on Dec. 10 at the Flagler County Fairgrounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Jan Sutton likes to listen in on the conversations between the children and the volunteers at the annual Giving Store at the Flagler County Fairgrounds.
The event, conducted by Flagler Volunteers Services, “teaches children the joy of giving during the holiday season,” according to Flaglervolunteer.org. Children, who qualify, sign up to select gifts for every member of their household.
“The whole idea is different, because when the children come to shop, if they have a sibling that’s eligible to shop, they’re buying gifts for each other. They don’t buy any gifts for themselves,” Sutton said.
During the past few years, Sutton has been the lead volunteer for the Giving Store and the bi-annual rummage sales that fund it.
“We would not be able to do this or the rummage sales without Jan’s help, directing the volunteers, working out the logistics.”
— JUDY MAZZELLA, Flagler Volunteers Services' coordinator of volunteers
“We would not be able to do this or the rummage sales without Jan’s help, directing the volunteers, working out the logistics,” said Judy Mazzella, coordinator of volunteers with Flagler Volunteer Services.
Mazzella and Sutton were making sure everything was running smoothly at the Giving Store event on Dec. 10. It’s Sutton’s favorite day of the year.
“This is my favorite event,” she said. “If you look at the kids, they’re all dressed up for the holiday, they’re so excited to come.”
Over 100 volunteers at Cattleman's Hall helped 427 children in kindergarten through fifth grade select gifts and wrap them for their family members.
“If you listen in to some of the conversations the children have with the escorts, that is what I like the best,” Sutton said. “I had a boy some years ago who wanted an emerald ring for his mom. I had to tell him that we don’t do rings because we don’t know what size his mom’s fingers are, so I said, ‘Let me see if I have a necklace.’ I found a necklace with a green stone. He was the happiest little boy. He said, ‘My mom wants this emerald.’ He had this idea when he came.”
Seeing smiles on children’s faces is what makes it all worthwhile for Sutton, who was a kindergarten paraprofessional in Connecticut before she and her husband retired to Palm Coast in 2017.
“I lasted about three months before I had to find something to do,” she said. “So, I joined Flagler Volunteer Services, and it just started to mushroom.”
Mazzella said Sutton basically volunteers full time for the organization. She collects donations year-round for the rummage sales. She meets people at the storage units where the donations are stored. Sutton put price tags on the items and separates them in bins. Each rummage sale takes in about $4,000 to $5,000, she said.
Sutton also work in the Flagler Volunteer Services office. She orders monthly books for the Reading Pals program. When she's not volunteering for Flagler Volunteer Services, she volunteers in a kindergarten classroom at Old Kings Elementary School.
Sutton works with two volunteer shoppers who purchase the Giving Store gifts.
“Over the years we found what is good and what isn’t good,” Sutton said. “What we have to keep in mind is the kids are giving the gifts, so it might be something we think is a good gift, but the child might look at it and say, ‘I don’t like that.’”
The shoppers’ motto is never pay full price, Sutton said. They buy a good portion of the gifts at after-Christmas sales for the following year’s event. They buy gifts for every age group, from infants to adults.
The volunteers keep a variety of gifts out all day for the Giving Store, so that kids who come later in the day have as many choices as the kids who come early, Sutton said.
“Jan keeps an inventory of every single item we have here,” Mazzella said, pointing to the many long tables of gifts.
“It’s a lot of work to put together,” Sutton said. “But it’s so worthwhile.”
