With the cold winter weather enveloping the shoreline, some 440 Branford seniors are feeling warm and cozy with new blankets.
A woman’s goal and the generosity of the community made sure of it.
This is the third year Branford resident Amy Rosen has collected blankets through her initiative Snuggles for Shoreline Seniors and coordinated distribution throughout her hometown.
“I wanted to do something to give back to the community,” she said. “Since I was a child, I had a deep affinity for senior citizens. When I was a child growing up in Mystic my childhood friends and I used to go to the nursing home that was in our neighborhood (the former Mary Elizabeth Nursing Home) and we used to sing Christmas carols.”
“I always remember going to visit the seniors and seeing people that were clearly alone, that didn’t have visitors, and that just really had a profound impact on me as a child,” she said.
Rosen said she does this in honor of her mother, Gail Rosen, who died in 2021.
“My mom was my best friend,” she said.
Her mother’s photo is prominent on the project’s flyer and “really fuels my inspiration for the blanket drive,” she said.
Every blanket is unique in color, pattern, size and texture. The most distinctive ones, though, are the handmade quilts that were dropped off at the James Blackstone Memorial Library, carefully bundled up and each tied with a red satin ribbon, Rosen said.
“They’re masterpieces and when I walked in and saw them, I just got emotional seeing them,” she said. “I was so grateful and appreciative.”
“I was really on a mission to find out who made them,” she said.
Christmas Eve 2024 Rosen met Nanci Errante at Saltbrick Prime Steakhouse and had a conversation about the blanket drive. Errante mentioned she would contribute.
Fast forward to Christmas Eve 2025 and the two again saw each other at Saltbrick and during the conversation Errante mentioned she had donated “some quilts.”
“I said, “I’ve been looking for you for a year and I can’t believe you’re the ‘quilt lady,’” said Rosen. “I said, ‘This is a Christmas miracle.”
Each quilt was handmade by Errante’s mother and aunt.
The 18 in total, ranging in size from twin to queen, had been stored at Errante and her aunt’s homes for the last decade. Some of them are hand quilted, while others, done when her mother got older, were machine stitched.
This Branford resident and her eight siblings all have their own heirloom, and Errante knew this is what her mother would have wanted her to do with the rest.
“Absolutely, that’s what my mom and my aunt wanted,” she said. “That’s 100 percent why my mom did it.”
“She’d been doing that for 25-30 years,” she said. “She’d make five and go give them to a drive.”
“It makes me feel very excited,” she said. “It makes me happy for my mom. I know that she’d be so proud.”
The first year, 2023, working with the Community Dining Room, the goal was 60 blankets, the number of recipients receiving meals through the Homebound Delivery Program that year.
“I didn’t know if this was going to take off so I was fully prepared to purchase any additional blankets to meet that 60 blanket goal,” Rosen said. “I collected 128 blankets that year.”
The additional blankets were distributed through the Canoe Brook Senior Center, Parkside Village and BHcare Clothing Bank.
Every year since Rosen has exceeded her goal. In 2024 with a goal of 200, she collected 325 and this year, with a goal of 400, she collected 441 with more coming in since the drive ended.
“People really embraced it,” she said.
The blankets were collected around the holiday season via decorated boxes scattered around town.
Wrapping and distributing the collection boxes, hanging flyers, collecting the donations and leaving a note on each blanket, “just to wish them happy holidays, I hope this blanket brings you comfort, warmth and joy,” is done solely by Rosen.
Every year more businesses get involved. This year the receptacles were placed at Branford Cleaners, Coastal Wine & Spirits, Eli’s Branford, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Lockworks Tavern, Parthenon Diner, Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Center Branford, Shoreline Insurance Services, Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library and Vera Bradley Outlet in Clinton.
They are distributed throughout town with the assistance of ARK Healthcare and Rehabilitation at Branford Hills, Branford Food Pantry, Canoe Brook Senior Center, Cedar Woods, Community Dining Room Home Delivery Program, Harbor Chase, Orchard House Medical Adult Day Center, Parkside Village II and Shoreline Grove.
Rosen is buoyed by the messages she has received from recipients.
“The messages are so heartfelt and just brought me so much joy,” she said.
Ed Wassmer’s 82-year-old mother, Gale, received a blanket this past holiday season.
“It was really colorful,” he said. “It had oranges and reds; it was just really warm and one of those inviting things.”
He said it goes perfectly as a throw on the reclining chair he gave her for Christmas.
“It’ll be there all through the winter,” he said.
“I just thought it was the nicest thing,” he said. “Just a little something that just kind of warmed up, not only her day, but my day as well because you go there and you just find other people are thinking of all these folks and just doing some really, really good work out there.”
When Wassmer contacted Rosen to thank her, he learned that their mothers had the same first name.
“She told me right away that it was just crazy her mother’s name was Gail, as well,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe it, either,” he said. “There’s no coincidences, so I just thought that was a crazy thing, too.”
“It was just a really nice experience,” he said.
One goal for this year is to become a non-profit organization and possibly expand it beyond Branford.
Rosen said the project is much more than just the distribution of blankets.
“The reason I started this is the holidays are so much focused on toys for children and food, both are really important, but our seniors are the foundation of our society,” she said. “I really feel that it’s important that we as a community and as a country support and take care of them.”
“Each blanket provides more than warmth,” she said. “It sends a powerful message to our seniors that they are seen, loved and valued.”
Contact Snuggles for Seniors at 203-208-8942, [email protected]