NORFOLK COUNTY PROBATIONERS GIVE BACK IN HUGE GIFT WRAP EFFORT FOR DISABLED RESIDENTS AT WRENTHAM FACILITY

A Community Service crew of 12 probationers from the Norfolk County Community Corrections Center wrapped more than 300 donated Christmas gifts and will sort and organize a total of 2,000 gifts for residents of the Wrentham Developmental Center, a facility for developmentally disabled and physically handicapped adults formerly known as Wrentham State School.

Probationers participated in the gift wrap effort as part of their community service requirement which is a condition of their probation. Community service projects are assigned through the Trial Court Community Service Program, according to Walter Skinner, a Court Services Coordinator for the program.

"This community service project is different from the work the offenders usually do. It gave them a sense of accomplishment to do something for someone else," said Wally Skinner, Norfolk County court services coordinator.

The Wrentham facility, which has a primarily geriatric population of 320 ages 36 to 97, is the only home the residents have known. Admissions to the center were closed nearly 40 years ago in 1967. Most have no existing relatives, according to Ingrid Arrigo-Grenon, volunteer services coordinator at Wrentham Developmental Center.

Arrigo-Grenon said the residents receive gifts such as compact disks, DVDs, clothing, personalized coffee mugs, popcorn machines, and waffle irons.

"We don't know what we would do without them (probationers). We haven't had to wrap a gift yet and we don't have to sort the gifts," Arrigo-Grenon said. "The crew set up the boxes to help sort the gifts which were donated by organizations and businesses in the community. The Community Service people also cleaned the floors at the center and the tables. They are a Godsend."

The offenders also help out at the Wrentham Developmental Center during the rest of the year raking leaves, weeding, digging out and planting flower beds, picking up trash, and completing indoor and outdoor painting projects on the more than 600-acre state property.