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Old Newsboys aid kids’ charities 24/7 Sansones subscribe to helping at-risk children 22 to 6, and everyone who was in town came and participated in the polo matches we initiated last year and continued this year. Our daughter, Maria, recently graduated from college and she will certainly participate with us on Old Newsboys Day this year. Any charities that involve children and are part of the St. Louis area attract us. That is clearly the mission of Old Newsboys.” Molly said the executive board is invested and committed to year-round fundraising for Old Newsboys.
BY JANICE DENHAM
G ra te f u l c h a r i ty lead e rs moved Doug and Molly Sansone. Their first year as chairmen of the Old Newsboys campaign to help at-risk children was coming to a close. They watched as boots-on-the-ground leaders of charities received funding for their programs. “They were all so grateful. It was better than Christmas morning. They were all wearing huge smiles. Seeing these people accept their checks – for some of them it’s the biggest one of the year – was a happy moment,” Molly said. Thousands of volunteers for Old Newsboys, wearing bright green aprons, will weave their way around traffic and in various St. Louis Bread Co. locations on Thursday morning, Nov. 21, 2019, to collect donations for this special-edition newspaper, planned and published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. All proceeds help children obtain life necessities. “All revenues go to Old Newsboys because there is no overhead due to the internal help of the Post-Dispatch. The task is daunting but knowing that some of the money pays for immediate help – like buying kids everyday shoes – is motivating,” Molly added. Of course, no matter how hard the Sansones and the Old Newsboys’ committee plan, the weather – particularly midNovember weather – is not within their control. Family legends about the wintry conditions on the Thursday before Thanksgiving have been shared for decades. “My dad was an Old Newsboy years ago, and I remember him going out to sell papers in the cold,” Doug said. Hazardous weather conditions of snow and ice finally prevailed in 2018. For the first time since the Globe-Democrat, then St. Louis’ second daily newspaper, sponsored its inaugural
“Everybody [on the board] is very active … they were not sure what the polo match would mean for them, but they invited friends and participated wholeheartedly that first year. The second year we added cars on display … and expanded the kids’ corner to attract families. This came about with enthusiasm and encouragement of the board to get better every year,” she said.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY OLD NEWSBOYS
Doug and Molly Sansone with Fredbird in 2018. campaign in 1957, the outdoor collection was postponed a day. Doug said, “It threw things off. Everybody likes seeing people on the streets, but should know it’s not the only day when funds are accepted. You can give 365 days a year. We are always here.” So is the need. Now in its 63rd year, Old Newsboys, a nonprofit organization itself, has raised $20 million for hundreds of local children’s charities in both Missouri and Illinois. This past year nearly 150 charities received grants requested to deliver items like clothing, medicine, equipment,
hygiene products, food, activity materials and other nonstop basic necessities. With support from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the event continues to identify with newspapers. Local high school students write stories about the charities served by Old Newsboys. The newspaper delivers a message of caretakers responding to today’s needs. Stories by student journalists also appear on stltoday.com. Frontline groups rely on Old Newsboys to open their hearts, put socks on tiny feet and fill children’s hungry bellies. As kids
grow, so do their needs. Some grants enrich children’s lives to help them thrive in school. After their first year serving as chairpersons, the Sansones’ resolved to surpass fundraising expectations in 2020. Molly said, “We had heard of a lot of these charities, but we knew them just by their name alone. Providing immediate help for their efforts was motivating,” Molly said. POLO MATCH FUNDRAISER Involving their own children in Old Newsboys has been important to the Sansones. Doug said, “We have six children ages
BOTH INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES CAN HELP The couple – married more than 23 years – and their family enterprise, the Sansone Group, exemplify many firms in the St. Louis area that contribute both personally and professionally to Old Newsboys. Their involvement encourages others. “There are people [and businesses] who would love to be involved in this child-centered cause today,” Molly said. Although needs of the children remain constant, some things have changed since that first year when $34,413 was collected for children’s charities in exchange for a one-of-a-kind newspaper. Making donations is easy with online payments. Oldnewsboysday.org welcomes any amount around-the-clock to help kids. “After all,” Molly asked, “how can you not love helping kids?”
Chairman’s Charity gives newcomers a feel of ‘home’ BY JANICE DENHAM
Think about moving into a new home. Where do the kids attend school? How do they get there? Is there a store nearby for the baby’s cough medicine? Will a job be waiting? Now make that move to a destination far, far away without understanding the local language, not having personal resources and neither friends nor relatives waiting. Meeting people who faced those challenges led the Sansone family to help individuals caught in the dilemma of flight from a land of violence to an uncertain, but hopeful future. Decades ago, Anthony F. Sansone Sr. and his wife, Mary Anne, helped a ministry at St. Pius X Catholic Church in south St. Louis. The ministry was led by Sister Paulette Weindel, who is referred to by their son Doug Sansone as a “modern-
The human spirit is alive and well in children, whether they are born in a free land or saved to live in one.
day Mother Teresa (who) had absolutely no funding to help the people who were coming to our country legally to look for a better life.” The Sansone family pitched in to help with items from air conditioners and clothes to rent and money for food. Relatives and friends assisted with personal manpower and support. As Doug, Cindy and other children of Anthony and Mary Anne grew up and began personal involvement in charitable organizations, the younger generation took the reins in what they formalized into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Doug and Molly Sansone are now board members of the not-for-profit FIRST – Friends of Immigrants & Refugees of St. Louis firststl.org – established to assist immigrants and refugees in becoming productive, self-sufficient citizens of the local community. As co-chairmen for the 2019-2020 Old Newsboys campaign, they have designated the charity to receive this year’s $10,000 Chairmen’s Charity of Choice grant. Cindy Finney, an older sister in the Sansone clan of eight siblings, and president of FIRST’s board of directors, said FIRST follows the simple philosophy of now-retired Sister Paulette, who still serves on its board of directors. “The real goal, as Sister would say, is to get [the new residents] to be good, contributing members of society. To do that, we do basic things for them.” Education is a primary objective, Finney said, but no one who is hungry cares to do homework, so FIRST concentrates efforts on food, rent and gas bills. “Those who needed help always found Sister Paulette,” Doug recalled. “She heard [of those in need] by word of mouth and she would call us. A sewing machine, some heaters. We would go to the store,
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOUG AND MOLLY SANSONE
Doug and Molly Sansone and their children deliver Christmas presents to members of a family who came to St. Louis from Liberia as refugees. buy them and deliver them to Sister. It was important to be able to provide 30, 40, 50 window air conditioner units to an apartment in oppressive heat.” “Somewhere in all our families’ histories, we were immigrants,” Doug said. A little assistance helps newcomers negotiate a leg up in a new system. Molly reasoned that helping others in need is a matter of human dignity. “When they arrive, they have no money and don’t understand the culture. Their English is not good. We simply help out those human beings so they can thrive in our society,” she said. Efforts over the years have reached refugees from many depressed parts of the world, including Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Eritrea. An interview with a Somali family on the FIRST website recounts rebel terror in their African home, barebones subsistence in three refugee camps and uncertainty as they journeyed from Kenya to their ultimate destination – St. Louis, Missouri. Through FIRST, Molly, Doug and their family have recently aided a Liberian fam-
ily surmounting new surroundings and unexpected challenges. Molly said, “We adjust to what they are facing. Sometimes there is a little more desperate situation through illness or tragedy or greater needs of the children, so we help them a little longer.” Happy times with them, like sharing Christmas presents, have become precious memories for the Sansone family too. “Little kids are involved and it is an eyeopening situation for ourselves and our own kids. There is always a big conversation with them on how important it is to help other people,” she added. Cindy recalled her younger brother’s heart for helping people. “One time when we delivered items, something like window air conditioners, Doug, who was only a teen then, helped take up a table and ended up emptying all the money out of his pockets to those people,” she said. Watching the universality of human emotion provided perspective. “They live in fear, but respond with gratitude and joy,” Finney said.