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01/12/2022 07:30 AMWhen Carol Mulqueen passed away in March 2016, her daughter Susan Mulqueen wanted to find a way to channel her grief to keep memories of her mother close. Remembering the joy giving to others, especially during the holiday season, brought her mother, Susan reached out to family and friends asking for donations in honor of Carol.
“I sent out flyers to family and friends, basically those on my Christmas card list, saying we were having a toy drive in her honor,” says Susan. “We were just overwhelmed the first year with the outpouring of support we got and we were able to donate to three different organizations.”
In 2016, the efforts benefited St. Barnabas Church, the North Haven Community Center, and the Branford Counseling Center. While Susan was overwhelmed by the support in the first year, it has only grown since then.
Susan calls her deliveries to drop donations “sleigh rides,” noting the first year it took three sleigh rides to deliver the gifts. This year, Susan and her family made 25 sleigh rides to deliver more than 800 toys, $2,500 in gift cards for tweens, 12 tablet computers, plus donations of gifts for 17 families.
“It was just amazing and each year I keep saying it’ll slow down or people will get tired, but it doesn’t,” says Susan. “Half the time I’m overwhelmed with the stuff coming in through Amazon, Venmo, PayPal, or delivered to my house. It’s a great feeling to be able to help out, but I can’t do what I do without the generosity of others and I have to give as much credit to my family who helps package everything and those who donate.”
Now collecting more toys and donations than ever before, the collection has been renamed Nonnie’s Toy Closet in honor of Carol’s role of grandma to Stacey Vincent and Ty, Cole, and Nate Ludington, who all help Susan shop for gifts. Susan’s family 86-year-old father, William, and her two sisters, Eileen Ludington of Guilford and Cheryl Vincent of Wallingford, are touched by the acts of remembrance for Carol.
“This is something that’s allowed us to be together and remember my mom—she’s always with us and this is always a big thing and that definitely tugs at your heart strings,” says Susan. “My nephews were younger when she passed, but this keeps them aware of her and knowing what she did.”
The idea for the holiday collection stemmed from Susan’s memories of her mother during the holiday season. Every year, Susan would accompany her mother to area churches and organizations where they’d collect angels off of trees to fulfill as many Christmas wishes as they could.
Susan remembers Carol creating bags for many children, making sure each received two toys, a coloring book and crayons, and warm-weather gear. While Susan was inspired by watching her mother, she says Carol was paying it forward.
“It stemmed from when we were younger and everyone struggled back in the day, but we had a couple of aunts who always made sure we had a lot of stuff under the tree to open,” says Susan. “She always said she’d give back when her means got better and she did. Every Christmas, it was big thing for us to go out and give what we could.”
Susan was born in Fair Haven where the family lived for several years before moving to North Haven in 1977. Susan first went to St. Francis School, which remains a donation point for Nonnie’s Toy Closet, as well as St. Rosa’s, where Carol attended school.
Though she lived in North Haven, Susan attended Eli Whitney Technical High School. After graduating, she got a job in the printing industry and now works in purchasing for a printing and advertising company in North Branford.
Through her career, Susan became involved with the Connecticut Valley Litho Club. Though the club has had to halt its in-person gatherings and events due to COVID, it continues to offer scholarships to students entering the printing and communication industry with more than $30,000 awarded last year.
“We’re trying to keep it going and use the money in our endowment to make sure we can pay it forward,” says Susan, “but COVID put a halt to the big gatherings we used to have.”
Susan’s longtime friends, the Dacey family, inspired her to get involved with the Knights of Columbus more than a decade ago. Susan was drawn to the community-centric events that the group holds like food drives and participating in community events such as the tree lighting. Susan has fond memories of getting hot chocolate and cookies from Rotarians when her family attended the tree lighting.
“I like how they’re rooted in the community and everything they do supports the community,” says Susan. “I’m a big proponent of keeping the community you live in in your endeavors and branching out to make community better by raising awareness of what’s going on around you.”
One of Susan’s favorite things about being involved in different organizations is getting to know the people in the community. She has enjoyed becoming more and more ingrained in the Town of North Haven throughout her years in town.
Outside of work and volunteering, Susan is an avid fan of the New York Yankees and the Guilford Grizzlies. She can often be found cheering on her nephews as they play football, basketball, or lacrosse. In the summer, she enjoys spending time in her pool and throughout the year, she relaxes by working on various handcrafts, which she attributes to “my days as a girl scout all that time ago.”
Susan combined her love of crafting with her efforts for Nonnie’s Toy Closet by creating and selling wreaths to benefit the toy drive on the collection day, held each year in addition to receiving donations by mail and dropped to her home. Susan is proud to continue the tradition her mother started, not only helping others, but keeping her mother’s memory alive.
“I visit her often at cemetery and tell her what we did and knowing we’re helping to keep her dream of making sure no kid goes without a toy on Christmas is part of what keeps me going every year and my personal way of keeping my mother close,” says Susan. “I’ll keep it going until it’s not serving the community anymore or it’s not a viable thing, but I don’t see that happening for years to come because of the outpouring of support we’ve seen.
“I have to put the emphasis on the people who support us, because we couldn’t do what we do without the community, family, and friends behind us,” adds Susan. “We care about where we live and the people who support us. It’s a big part of our driving force, along with keeping my mom’s dream alive.”