Plenty of people have joined Montville’s efforts to make a happy holiday season for all the town’s residents.

The town’s social services department has been collecting donations of clothes, food and toys that will be put together in hundreds of gift baskets for families in town who need them. 

But one pint-sized donor stood out to the social services staff when she started showing up at their door with deliveries. Nine-year-old Lily McConkey-Caron, a student at Mohegan Elementary School, has made six deliveries of gifts and food she collected.

Lilly stopped by Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel’s office earlier this month, getting a certificate of appreciation and an invitation to the next Town Council meeting.

“We’re all very proud of you,” McDaniel told the grinning fourth-grader.

The social services department collects donations each year at the Montville Senior Center on Maple Ave.

Bethany Caron said her daughter made up her mind a few weeks ago that she was on a mission to make the holidays a little brighter for her neighbors.

“She said, ‘I have an idea – I want to help people,’” Caron said.

Lily began asking for donations and making deliveries to the senior center in huge boxes.

“Those toys that she brought are going to make some families very happy,” Senior and Social Services Director Kathleen Doherty-Peck said.

Lily had little to say about her generous mission, and couldn’t say exactly what led her to want to contribute.

“It just came to me,” she said.

The department will continue to accept donations at the Montville Senior Center at 12 Maple Ave. until Christmas. Volunteers have been packing up the gift baskets this week, and will continue to make baskets as more donations come in.

m.shanahan@theday.com

Twitter: @martha_shan