When David Shea was 5 years old, he was placed in foster care. He spent the next seven years bouncing around from home to home, and remembers some Christmases when he watched the family he was staying with open presents — with none to open himself.

“I was determined, even at a young age, to make sure that didn’t happen to others,” said Shea, who lives in Turners Falls these days. “Foster care wasn’t regulated then, so it wasn’t the best.”

He returned to his mother when he was 12 years old and they moved to Amherst, where he attended Amherst High School until transferring to Franklin County Technical School, where he studied computer programming and data processing.

Even then, Christmas was never a big deal — there was always more important things to focus on.

“I left Franklin County Tech to go to work. I got my GED and was on my own at 16 years old,” he said. “I worked the night shift in a grocery store. I had my own apartment and didn’t do a lot of celebrating. I was struggling, as I always had.”

Today, Shea is a licensed practical nurse working at Buckley HealthCare Center in Greenfield. He said sometimes he’ll work two shifts in one day, which means he puts in 50 or more hours a week some weeks.

“Growing up, I was dirt poor,” he said. “For Christmas, I’d get socks and underwear — just what I needed, nothing more.”

Poverty, he says, is cyclical. Once in it, it is hard to escape. Because of that, he says he makes it a point to do what he can to make sure he and his 17-year-old son don’t have to experience it again. Notably, his son will graduate from Franklin County Technical School this coming spring and plans to join the U.S. Marines in order to serve his country and community.

To that end, Shea started a charity that is known in the area as True Christmas several years ago. The charity recently became a nonprofit with 501c3 status.

Initially, Shea says he was prompted to start the organization after he and his children found themselves homeless and temporarily living in a Greenfield hotel in 2013. He was out of work and had taken his kids from an “unsafe” situation. He didn’t have the money or resources to start over.

“I originally moved in with a friend with two of my three kids, but that didn’t work,” he said. “I had nowhere to go, so there we were in a hotel with other homeless families. The Department of Transitional Assistance put us in the Days Inn.”

Even though it was summer and they were able to leave by fall — they weren’t there long — Shea says he never forgot about the other children living in the hotel.

“I wanted to do something,” he said. “I was going to nursing school at Greenfield Community College, the (licensed nurse practitioner) program, and my son, Lucas, was at Mohawk Trail Regional High School at the time. My daughter was working at Big Y. We were out of the hotel, but a lot of people weren’t.”

Seeing the need, he decided to collect 300 stuffed animals so that homeless children in the two Greenfield hotels would have something to open that Christmas.

“It was such a success I decided to keep it going the next year and I called it True Christmas, because I had never had one,” he said. “The next year, though, I got a little more organized and made a list of families in need and what they needed and wanted.”

That year, Shea says he served eight to 10 families in 2014, with about 40 children, receiving gifts. The charity has expanded drastically since then.

Last year, 117 children received gifts, and this year, more than 150 will. He said his goal by next year is to serve 200 children.

“I know I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ve got some good people volunteering for me.”

Among those who have helped, Shea says the Gun Rack in Turners Falls, which is owned by Norman Emond and his family, Cleary Jewelers in Greenfield, Karen Webber and Gary Vaughan, Linda Webster, Diane Kieras-Ciolkas, Western New England University College of Pharmacy students, Marissa and Daniel Gray and Beth and Adam Ginsburg have been extremely helpful.

In particular, Kerry Semaski, owner of Cleary Jewelers, provided 85 stuffed stockings for children last year and has given more than 100 already this year.

“She provides the stockings and all of the fillers,” he said. “What a big heart she has.”

His son helps him collect, sort and wrap presents that are donated by people throughout the area.

It’s not just recipients who benefit. Many times, Shea says his son has told him how happy he is to be able to help.

Personally, he said he has been helped by many people throughout the years.

He readily recalls many Decembers spent worrying about whether or not his kids would have a Christmas.

Shea says he struggles with depression. During a few years when he was out of work, Shea says the compounded challenges caused him to spiral.

“One Christmas, I went to the Salvation Army in the town where my kids and I were living. Someone there said to me when I (arrived), ‘Do you have a big truck?’” Shea recalled.

He drove away that day with a minivan filled with toys, necessities and bikes for all three of his children — his oldest daughter lived with her mother at the time.

He never forgot that act of kindness.

“What a humbling experience,” he said. “And they didn’t make me feel bad about it. It was so strange to me to get help from someone I didn’t know.”

In the worst of times, Shea says people and organizations like the Salvation Army were there for him — just like he strives to be there for others now.

Through True Christmas, Shea says he wants to put an end to that kind of worry for as many other parents or grandparents as he can.

“It’s scary,” he said. “It’s sad. I guess I’m trying to make up for the Christmases I never had.”

Annually, Shea says he never knows what items people will donate — stuffed animals, bikes, games, clothes and other necessities. Some years, people have donated not only toys but food for an entire Christmas dinner. Others donate money so that he can buy toys, necessities and food for others.

“I’m so excited to see how many kind and generous people we live around,” he said. “They have such big hearts. I’m so in awe, and can hardly believe it. And, without my volunteers and donors, I would be nothing and True Christmas would be nothing.”

Planning for the charitable endeavor begins early. Shea collects toys all year, and he himself buys toys and other items he finds on sale throughout the year and stores them in three upstairs rooms in his two-story home. As requests and referrals come in later each year, he starts to sift through what he’s got and sort them into piles for different families.

“I have a special donor who doesn’t want to be named but wants to help single mothers and fathers and grandparents raising their grandchildren,” he said. “I’m currently helping people throughout Franklin County, but I’m now getting calls from Westfield and Northampton. So many people need help and my arms only extend so far.”

One day, Shea says his dream is to have a warehouse filled with toys for children throughout the entire region. To do that, Shea says he will need more volunteers and donors.

“I don’t have a lot of spare time, with me working as a nurse for 50 to 60 hours some weeks, and working on True Christmas every other waking hour,” he said. “After January, though, it will slow down, at least for a while.”

Now that he has a little extra spending money and has dug himself out of poverty, Shea says he tries to do special things now and then for his children and grandchildren — especially his son, whom he takes to dinner once in a while.Last year, he took him on a cruise for Christmas because they weren’t able to do those sort of things when his other children were growing up.

“I hope my kids will learn from this — I hope they’ll pay it forward,” he said. “I hope True Christmas stays successful and continues to grow. All I want to do is make someone’s Christmas magical. That’s what it’s all about, the kids.”

This Christmas, Shea says he plans to spend a quiet day at home. When he comes down the stairs in the morning to have his cup of eggnog, he’ll sit on the couch and know there are many children across the county who are coming down their stairs to find presents under the tree — something that might not have been if not for True Christmas.

“I’ll just smile,” he said — and that will be the grandest present of all.

To donate to True Christmas, send or drop off donations to: True Christmas, care of David Shea, 39 Grove St., Turners Falls, MA 01376, call Shea at 413-824-4170 or email him truechristmas.organization@gmail.com.

Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269, or afritz@recorder.com.

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