With the help of an anonymous donor and the Boothbay Harbor Police Department, the Community Center is offering free wrapped Christmas presents for children from Dec. 12 to Dec. 20.

Parents or grandparents who are raising grandchildren are welcome to come to the Center and select a child’s gift or toy. There is a limit of one per child.

The gifts for children arrived at the Center with the help of Boothbay Harbor police officer Larry Brown. Early in November, Craig and Laura Lee Keating of Cortland Manor, New York brought two large boxes of children’s gifts to the Police Department. Brown asked the Center if it wanted the items and board member Margaret Perritt quickly said “Yes, we’ll take them.”

When Center secretary Jen Field wondered what to do with the gifts, Perritt had a plan. “We’re going to wrap them up and invite people to come and get them for their children and grandchildren,” she answered.

Brown delivered two very large boxes filled with games, puzzles, stuffed animals, and other gifts. The Center put out a call to its volunteers and on Nov. 30, all the gifts were wrapped. They are now displayed under the tree and on tables in the lobby.

“It’s important that these presents go out into the community and there are lots of grandparents who are raising grandchildren in this area,” Perritt said.

With gift-giving in the air, the Center also received a gift. Boothbay Harbor’s Barbara Leonard donated her 2009 Subaru Outback. “I hope they get a lot of use out of it,” she said.

Leonard had been looking for a new car and Center board president Shawn Lewin suggested she donate her used car and receive the tax benefit of a charitable gift to the nonprofit. The Center paid for work it needed, including brakes, a thermostat and inspection sticker. The vehicle is now on the road, being shared by the Center and People Helping People.

“It gives us a lot more flexibility,” Lewin said. “Our van can take about five people on an enrichment trip. But if someone needs a ride to a doctor’s appointment at the same time or more people want to go on the trip, we now have another vehicle to use.”