Community

Capital One Bank donates $500 worth of toys to local charities

Former Cutchogue Fire Department chief and toy coordinator Tom Shalvey looks on as Capital One Bank branch manager Diane Biondi (far left), assistant manager Anjiolo Gonazlez and relationship banker Trinity Fleischman load a sleigh with $500 worth of toys Friday morning. The gifts will be donated to local charities. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Former Cutchogue Fire Department chief and toy coordinator Tom Shalvey looks on as Capital One Bank branch manager Diane Biondi (far left), assistant manager Anjiolo Gonazlez and relationship banker Trinity Fleischman load a sleigh with $500 worth of toys Friday morning. The gifts will be donated to local charities. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)

It looked like Santa Claus had paid an early visit to the Cutchogue Fire Department when local officials and Capital One Bank employees loaded an antique sleigh with more than $500 worth of toys Friday morning. 

The gifts, which will be distributed to Community Action Southold Town, Southold Presbyterian Church and the Butterfly Effect Project in Riverhead, were donated by the Mattituck and Cutchogue branches of Capital One Bank, said former fire chief and toy drive coordinator Tom Shalvey.

The third annual event was sponsored by Coster Heppner Funeral Home in Cutchogue, which provided the sleigh, he said. Other sponsors were Kolb Mechnical In Mattituck, the Mattituck Fire Department and the Michael Curtain 3256 Foundation.

In addition to its toy drive, the Cutchogue Fire Department will host its third annual “Stuff the Sleigh,” a 5K and kids’ fun run, on Sunday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to noon. In addition to the $30 entry fee, participants are asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy, which will be donated to CAST.  Children participating in the fun run are asked to bring two non-perishable food items, which will be donated to Southold Presbyterian Church’s food pantry, Mr. Shalvey said.

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