Each year, Carver’s Teen Center Manager, Tremain Gilmore, organizes a massive gift-giving event at the Carver Community Center. Helping Tremain were close friends such as Ayasha Cantey, Julia Moore, Carver’s Jackie Roberson, and Jacob Tomlin.

Dozens of people and local businesses and organizations donate countless gifts that are added to however many gifts are left over from Carver’s gift-giving day to local children.

This year, GE Capital and some of their employees made an especially significant contribution to this initiative.

When a Norwalk Police Officer delivered a van full of toys, we made the obvious comment that Tremain is a wonderful person. He quickly replied that, “Tremain passed ‘wonderful’ a long time ago.”

Calvary Baptist Church, led by Rev. Dr. Jeffrey A. Ingraham, honored Tremain last year for his exemplary service to the community. Tremain is many things to the Norwalk community. He is known for his leadership and countless (and quiet) contributions far and wide. A Carver staffer for more than 16 years, Tremain organizes many Carver and (like this event) Carver-supported community events throughout the year. Tremain embodies the heart and soul of the Carver mission as much as anyone ever did in the 83-year history of Carver’s presence in the Norwalk community.

This giving of the “Blessings Bags” is a most fitting way for the Carver community to close out the tumultuous year of 2020. Whatever has happened, whatever is going to happen in the world, in this living moment of gift-giving contains the sum of the excitement and healing that is the Carver community.

As much as Carver measures and values its programmatic outcomes, we hold that presence is far more intricate and rewarding an outcome than productivity alone. Carver embraces a culture that measures our worth not only by our efficiency and our ability to perform this or that, but more importantly how we spend our days and therefore how we spend our lives.