SCARBOROUGH – Kevin Grondin cannot think about Christmas without thinking of Steven Delano, his best friend and Scarborough High School classmate who was killed in a prom night car crash in May.

“He loved Christmas. It was his favorite holiday. He made me listen to Christmas music all the time,” said Grondin, who was in the car with Delano that night, along with their two dates. The holiday, he said, brought out the best in Delano, who used the time to help out family and friends. “He was always looking out for other people.”

Channeling Delano’s spirit of giving, Grondin, who is still recovering from injuries suffered in the crash, is heading up a toy drive to benefit the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center. While he gathers toys in Scarborough, Kayla Carpenter, Delano’s girlfriend at the time of the crash who was also in the car the night of the accident, is doing the same at a site in Gorham.

“We have decorated the (crash) site for all the holidays, but I felt like we needed to do something else for Christmas,” Grondin said. “Cindy, Steve’s mother, works in the Barbara Bush wing of the hospital, so I felt the toy drive idea would be a good idea.”

Helping out

The public drop-off point for Scarborough, Grondin said, is Village Center Auto Care, an automotive service center and gas station owned by his grandfather. In Gorham, toys can be dropped off at the Ocean Garden restaurant on Route 25. They will be collecting toys and other items for children until Dec. 20, when they will bring the donated items to the hospital.

Eliott Pitts, development manager for The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, said the hospital’s staff is more than thankful for the goodwill of people like Grondin and Carpenter, who aim to brighten the holiday for patients.

“The hospital is exceptionally fortunate to benefit from the kind-hearted support from strangers all over the state. It is unbelievably touching,” she said. “Just a simple teddy bear or a box of Uno cards or a Matchbox car can brighten their day.”

Grondin said he knows the power a toy or stuffed animal has for a child stuck in a hospital. While he was recovering from the injuries he sustained in the accident, he said a friend bought him a stuffed animal that looks like his black Labrador retriever, a toy he still has and one that helped him in his recovery.

“Stuff like that helps out a lot, especially around the holidays,” he said. “Whatever I can do to make a kid’s life a little bit better is my main thing with this. Christmas is the time of year to be happy.”

Pitts said donated toys are spread throughout the different areas of the hospital and delivered by Santa when he comes to visit the children on Dec. 24.

“If you have ever seen Santa hand out toys at a hospital, it is absolutely the true meaning of Christmas,” Pitts said. “It will melt your heart like nothing you have ever seen before.”

Some donated toys, Pitts said, are saved for other times of the year to be used as birthday gifts or as prizes for games or for undergoing treatment.

“They are used all year,” Pitts said. “Sometimes something like a game is kept in the hospital for all children to enjoy.”

‘Ups and downs’

Grondin has come a long way since the accident on May 8, when just after 5:30 p.m. a fuel tanker truck sideswiped Delano’s Pontiac G-6 at the corner of Payne and Holmes roads in Scarborough.

The truck’s driver, Nathan Allen, 38, of Casco, was charged in September with one count of manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of reckless conduct with a weapon. Police say Allen blew through the stoplight at the intersection before hitting Delano’s car.

Delano was pronounced dead on arrival at Maine Medical Center, while Grondin was left with broken bones in his face and an internal brain injury. He also now suffers from anxiety, fatigue and deafness in his left ear.

“I am doing OK,” he said. “I’ve had my ups and downs.”

The accident took both Grondin’s best friend and, it seems, his dream to join the Air Force following graduation last June. A military career is now unlikely, he said, because of the lingering repercussions of the accident, though Air Force officials have told him that they will pass the idea onto the branch’s medical board to see if Grondin is fit to serve or not.

Grondin is now working a few days a week in the fishing department of Cabela’s, a job, he said, he enjoys.

“They have been absolutely amazing, he said. “They check in on me all the time to see how I am doing. It is great.”

Grondin said because of an inability to concentrate for a long period of time, he has not been able to get a full-time job while he waits to hear about the prospects for a military career.

“Not being able to further my career in the military is hard,” he said. “Not being able to work a 40-hour-a-week job is bringing me down a little bit, but it also gives me time to hang out with friends, who have been able to bring me back into good spirits.”

Christmas trees now adorn the site on Payne Road where in May an auto accident severely injured Kevin Grondin, above, and killed his best friend, Steven Delano, while both were seniors at Scarborough High School. Christmas was Delano’s favorite holiday, said Grondin, who is orchestrating a toy drive in his friend’s name for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. (Photo by Rich Obrey)