CHRIS KELLY staff (Above) Matthew Felis (l), Fair Haven, Michael McGrath, Hazlet, and Aishah Saeed, Farmingdale, dance while Tim McLoone, founder of Holiday Express, supplies the music at a holiday party for clients of Monmouth Center for Vocational Rehabilitation in Eatontown. (Photo left) A troupe of more than 200 volunteers helped stage close to 50 parties this holiday season. Merry makers wrap up 11th season of bringing joy to those needing it most
BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
Holiday Express was about three-quarters of the way through its annual goodwill circuit last week when the troupe brought its irrepressible holiday spirit to clients at the Monmouth Center for Vocational Rehabilitation in Eatontown.
Close to wrapping up its 11th season, the traveling troupe of merry-making volunteers descended on MCVR on Dec. 14, bringing music, dancing, food, gifts, a fun time and goodwill to the adult clients of the program.
By Christmas Eve, the troupe will have touched down close to 50 times this year to bring a music-filled, joyful celebration to those who most need it at venues ranging from psychiatric hospitals to soup kitchens.
“We try to focus on mentally and physically disabled adults because they’re the population that gets the least amount of attention,” explained Amy Robinson, director of operations for Holiday Express.
“If we’re not there, they’d get little to no attention at holiday time.”
According to Robinson, more than 200 volunteers staged 46 holiday parties and four concerts this year. They were backed by 400 youngsters who volunteered to help at the troupe’s Tinton Falls warehouse.
“The 15,000 gift bags that everybody receives get packed there,” she said. “Typically they contain a hat, pair of gloves, scarf, toiletry items like soap; everybody gets candy. For kids we try to put a Beanie Baby in; for the mentally disabled we try to put a deck of cards, something fun, and pretty much every homeless person we see gets a blanket.”
Well over $200,000 has to be raised to cover the costs of this outreach, she said, and concerts like the Christmas Spectacular scheduled for Dec. 23 at Continental Airlines Arena in Rutherford are a major source of funding.
Just about every one of MCVR’s disabled adult clients attended the Holiday Express party, which took place in a large industrial space converted for the occasion into a party room complete with a dance floor.
“They like to eat, love to dance and love music, and they love gifts,” said Alma Gray, vice president. “This is what this whole party is about, and they just get out there. The volunteers say they like this party better than any other because they feel they’re spreading so much joy here. It’s very important to our people.”
“Three years ago Tim [McLoone] called and said, ‘Do you have any time?’ recalled keyboardist and singer Vance Villastrigo, of Little Silver. “I joined and it’s been good. I like the fact that we’re giving underprivileged and disabled people a lot of joy. It’s a great feeling. We’re just doing what we do anyway. There’s always someone who sings with us — it’s special moments like that. We’re giving Christmas to people who can use the joy.”
George Curtis was getting ready to don a Santa suit at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4745 hall in Aberdeen the next day as the holiday party was about to get under way for clients of CPC Behavioral Healthcare. The Atlantic Highlands resident has been a volunteer since 1999.
“After I did one show, I was hooked,” said Curtis, who generally drives the truck carrying equipment and supplies to sites. “After seeing the enjoyment clients get out of it, the feeling you have when you’re doing this — everybody in this world should just come for one show, and they’d be hooked too.”
Like many of the volunteers, Curtis looks on the party at St. John’s Soup Kitchen in Newark on Christmas Eve as the best show of the year.
“It’s not only the last one, but interacting with the homeless people there is special. Those people are human too.
“We’re telling them that somebody cares and they’re worth it. You go around and wish them a merry Christmas. You try to read their faces, give them a hug, a pat on the back. You try to treat them the way you would want to be treated if you were on their side of the street.”
Like most volunteers, Sam Vilardi was enlisted by Holiday Express founder Tim McLoone, restaurateur, musician and the dynamo whose energy drives the troupe.
“We did a show at a psychiatric hospital where most of the people were very elderly and confined to wheelchairs,” said Vilardi, Fair Haven, in his sixth year as a volunteer.
“Most of them were 80 and 90 years old. They may not have been fully aware of what was going on around them, but when the music started playing, they knew.”
At the end of show we gave everybody a teddy bear. They all hugged the bears and cried, and we cried.”
Most of the volunteers were enlisted by Holiday Express founder Tim McLoone, restaurateur, musician and the dynamo whose energy drives the troupe.
McLoone founded Holiday Express after working with a program whose mission was to feed the homeless in Newark.
The leader of the Shirleys realized something was lacking.
“It was a great experience, but there was no music,” he said. “I said, ‘We have to have music,’ and I went back again the next year and brought a boom box.”
That was Christmas Eve 1992, and when McLoone saw how people coping with every kind of challenge reacted to the music, the idea for Holiday Express was born.
“The following year I called up all the musicians I knew, and I asked if they would be interested in playing on Christmas Eve,” he recounted. “I thought five or six would show up, but 18 showed up. I asked if they would be interested in doing more than one show.”
In 1993 McLoone booked 10 different venues and discovered what the Holiday Express mission was.
“We try to do two audiences,” he explained. “One is people that, if we’re not there, will get little or nothing for the holiday season. Adult orphans is who they are. The second is people whose need is so Columbine High School.
“We’re after poverty, and there’s all kinds of poverty — poverty of the body, poverty of the wallet, poverty of the mind. Well, they had poverty of the heart to the max. We got lifelong friendships out of that.”
The seemingly tireless McLoone said he expected Holiday Express would last, but didn’t anticipate the depth of the outreach it would come to encompass.
“I certainly thought it would last, but I didn’t realize the breadth of what we were doing,” he said. “We bring all the food, all the gifts; we decorate the place. Our volunteers will serve the food, dance with people, hand out gifts. We give out scholarships. We support financially a number of soup kitchens, very quietly. We don’t want praise for it.”
According to Robinson, it’s not too early to volunteer to get on the Holiday Express for next year’s run. To volunteer, visit www.holidayexpress.org or call Robinson at (732) 544-8010.

