East Hanover Daisy Troop Helps Storm Victims

It took two moving trucks—one 20-foot and one 26-foot—to transport all of the items collected for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts as part of Operation Sandy Claus, a community effort started by an East Hanover Daisy Troop.

Donations were stored and sorted at the home of East Hanover resident Danielle Baranowski, who got the idea to teach her 5-year-old daughter, Isabella Palmieri, and her Daisy Troop about giving back.

Baranowski's family shore home on Ortley Beach was destroyed by the storm, and she knew she wanted to find a way to help.

Baranowski said the idea was difficult for her daughter to grasp at first.

She asked her daughter, "Can you imagine if you came home one day and our house wasn't there? ... We're going to buy things for kids that lost their whole house. What do you think we should get them?"

The item Isabella thought of first to provide children affected by the storm was a pillow, she said.

Before long, the PTAs for East Hanover schools got involved and a high school friend of Baranowski's in Bethlehem, Pa., filled a moving van full of supplies for the troop. Another truck came from Boston.

Donated items ultimately included toiletries, new bedding, diapers, wipes, clothes, blankets, toys, batteries, garbage bags, mops and buckets.

"You name it, it was in there," Baranowski said.

Isabella, Jessica Akos, Cristina Messana, Tina LaRosa, Daniella Piscitelli, Gia D'Alessio and Meera Bustaw comprise the Daisy Troop. Cathy Akos and Barbara Messana are co-leaders. Other parents, including Renee D'Alessio, sorted clothes and organized boxes.

Over the weekend they received donations at Kitchell Memorial Church in East Hanover and on Sunday they delivered the shipments to St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Toms River. The effort was filmed by Save Our Shore and supported by Restore the Shore.

"People that I didn't even know were there helping us," Baranowski said.