SALISBURY — When Salisbury Santa’s Helpers founder Elizabeth “Betty” Cloonan passed away on Tuesday at age 93, she left behind a legacy of charitable giving that will reverberate for years to come.
Cloonan started Santa’s Helpers in the early 1970s to ensure no child in Salisbury went without presents on Christmas morning.
Santa’s Helpers is a program that provides three Christmas gifts and clothing to each child in need in Salisbury during the holiday season.
Cloonan ran the program until 2019 when it fell to The Salvation Army before members of the Salisbury Lions Club reestablished the program as a nonprofit in 2022.
Diann May, a current Santa’s Helpers board member, began working with the group in the 1990s alongside Cloonan. May said Santa’s Helpers was a “passion project” for Cloonan, who was dedicated to giving back.
“She created the program hands down from the ground up,” May said.
May also said Cloonan was dedicated to providing privacy to anyone who benefited from Santa’s Helpers.
“She was very meticulous about keeping quiet about who the people were, very discreet,” she said.
While reflecting on Cloonan’s contributions to the community, May spoke highly of her as a person.
“She was one of the most kindhearted people that you would ever meet,” she said.
E.J. Dean, another Santa’s Helpers board member, knew Cloonan and praised her giving nature and warm spirit.
“To know Betty, she had a very glowing and always happy personality. It was one of those infectious personalities that brings out a smile in anyone. And, on top of that, she was just a very generous woman, especially with the Santa’s Helper Program in particular. But, just in general, for the community, she was always there for the town,” he said.
Dean said Cloonan’s contributions to the town were instrumental in creating the community support programs in Salisbury.
“The generosity that people see in Salisbury from all the different activities that go on and all the different agencies that help, both public and private, before those things existed, she was a lot of that in our community,” he said. “She was one of the founding members, and she certainly wasn’t the only person in town that did it, but she was certainly a strong force in it and laid the bedrock to a lot of what we have in our community to assist those that need it.”
Selectman Michael Colburn echoed Dean’s statements about Cloonan’s impact on the community.
“Betty is the example of what Salisbury is in the past and the future. That giving spirit she really instilled in a lot of people around her and it still lives true today in Salisbury,” he said.
Dean said he heard through family members that Cloonan was proud to see her work on Santa’s Helpers live on through the current board.
“She was always happy to hear that it was continuing and thriving,” he said.