Norwich’s Helping Hands held a donation night on Thursday, suppling more than 120 people with supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. (Photos by Zachary Meseck)

NORWICH - Helping Hands at Norwich helped more than 120 individuals Thursday night with social distancing guidelines in mind.

According to Norwich Helping Hands Director Lorri Race, Thursday’s donation night was a big success, with continuing volunteer growth and positive change on the horizon.

“What's really changed is the fact that new community members are stepping up and starting to support us,” said Race. “We have so many volunteers now that have come forward and not only with time, there are monetary donations, there are people behind the scenes who are running to pick things up for us, and people using our Amazon wishlist.”

“The whole thing has just really started to take off and continues to work in the direction that we wanted it to be.”

Race said the Norwich Family YMCA continues to support the effort, and has been a huge help when organizing donation nights.

Race added that Diane Distefano and her family continue to be a great help to the organization.

“The Y has been incredibly supportive too, they’ve never said no, they’ve been very flexible and have always made things work to help us,” she said. “Tonight we were originally planning on doing everything outdoors, but with short notice we moved it inside due to the rain.”