Christmas Is For Kids! Off to a Great StartMore than $5,600 was raised for deserving children and their families in Essex and Old Saybrook at the first annual Christmas Is For Kids! fundraiser on Dec. 7 at Otter Cove Restaurant in Old Saybrook. Don't miss the fabulous food, live music, and good company at the group's second annual event in 2010. Organizers, the Friends of Social Services, wish to thank the following sponsors and donors and all who attended for making this inaugural event a smashing success: gold sponsors-The Clark Group, Essex Printing/

More than $5,600 was raised for deserving children and their families in Essex and Old Saybrook at the first annual Christmas Is For Kids! fundraiser on Dec. 7 at Otter Cove Restaurant in Old Saybrook. Don't miss the fabulous food, live music, and good company at the group's second annual event in 2010. Organizers, the Friends of Social Services, wish to thank the following sponsors and donors and all who attended for making this inaugural event a smashing success: gold sponsors-The Clark Group, Essex Printing/Events Magazines; silver sponsors-Tower Laboratories, Brewers Dauntless Shipyard, Law Office of Christopher Morano, and Island Cove Marina/Jon and Lisa Manafort; bronze sponsors-Liberty Bank, Pizza Pub, Corrosion Probe, Bombaci Tree Experts, ML Hotchkiss Associates, Brewers Pilots Point Marina, CT State Police Credit Union, Charles Gill and Linda Goddard, Underwater Construction Corp., Vincent Dowling Family Foundation, Universal Telecommunication Systems, Inc., and The Wine Cask, LLC/Dick and Kim Ertelt; and drawing prize donors-Jeffrey Sabol, William Winterer, The Griswold Inn, and That's The Spirit Shoppe.Shown donating the checks to Old Saybrook and Essex social services departments are (from left, back row) Otter Cove owner Lisa Floridia, Laurel Peters, Sheila Arsenault-Stanlonis, Janice Murphy; (front) Social Services Coordinator Susan Consoli, Mark Hotchkiss, Bill Foster, and Essex First Selectman Philip J. Miller. Photo by Jess Smith/Harbor News

Shown donating the checks to Old Saybrook and Essex social services departments are (from left, back row) Otter Cove owner Lisa Floridia, Laurel Peters, Sheila Arsenault-Stanlonis, Janice Murphy; (front) Social Services Coordinator Susan Consoli, Mark Hotchkiss, Bill Foster, and Essex First Selectman Philip J. Miller. Photo by Jess Smith/Harbor News