The Franklin Community Center was as busy as a beehive when Janet Aiello-Cerio, events and communications coordinator for the Office of Enrollment Management at SUNY Empire State College, dropped off holiday gift donations from Saratoga Springs-area employees.

Community center volunteers were organizing hundreds of gifts by age and gender on large tables in their community room.

Teenagers, especially males, are a difficult category to fill, according to the community center’s staff and volunteers.

The community center had provided a list of appropriate gifts for teenagers to the college in early November.

SUNY Empire employees then acquired gifts for teenagers, including gift cards for the movies, bookstore, bowling, coffee shops, as well as cosmetics, shampoo and body wash, cozy socks and fleece blankets, basketballs and more.

Aiello-Cerio paid her visit to the community center during the first full week of December.

SUNY Empire employees have been supporting the community center for a number of years.

Community center staff and volunteers expressed their gratitude to SUNY Empire college’s employees for their generosity and continuing support for those in community in need of assistance.

The community center is a non-profit human service agency, located at 10 Franklin Street, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

According to its website, the community center has been providing basic necessities and services to less fortunate individuals and families in the Saratoga Springs area for 30 years.