(by Deidre Williams – Buffalo News) Eileen C. Nowak shops year round for Christmas toys and gifts. And she’s always 
looking for bargains. So when she spied basketballs that were on sale for more than 50 percent off the original price, she left the store with enough to fill her sport utility vehicle, except for a spot for her and her son to sit.
That may seem like a lot of basketballs, but they don’t even make up one quarter of her shopping list. After all, Nowak has to buy for thousands of children.
“We do toy bags for 4,000 to 5,000 kids,” said Nowak, director of parish outreach and advocacy for Catholic Charities, which is part of the Western New York Holiday Partnership— a collaborative effort involving The News Neediest Fund and 15 local agencies.
