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| Santa's Red Cross elves: Lydia Hignite, Sara Clifton and Colleen Stufflebeam work to spread holiday cheer at the 26th Annual Holiday Party | ||
Monday, Dec. 17 Santa took a break from his sleigh and instead rode a fire truck downtown to the American Red Cross building on East Chestnut Street. Once he and Mrs. Claus had made their big entrance and settled into their places of honor, each in a chair sturdy enough to hold Old St. Nick and a little one on each knee, the couple proceeded in turn to greet each child and give him or her a small bag of toys. These were children who had lost some or all of their belongings to fire in the past year.
Santa must have good knees,
because he gave 113 children toys that night. More than 35 Red Cross
volunteers, alongside the firefighters of Louisville
Professional Firefighters Union Local 345, donated their time to make the event
a success, serving refreshments and overseeing crafts and games.
Of this group, four Red Cross
staff members served as Santa’s trusty elves. The elves took seriously their
role of maintaining a neat line of
children and families progressing toward Santa amidst the hubbub and
excitement, chit chatting with those waiting in line, and smiling. There was a
lot of smiling. Here, the elves share some highlights of the night:
“Spreading holiday cheer is
not a tough job, especially when you have elf ears and your clothes jingle
everywhere you go. I loved high-fiving little hands covered in candy cane
stickiness and watching faces light up in awe with the first sight of Santa
Claus. But most of all, I enjoyed watching families smile and laugh and play in
spite of the difficult circumstances they’ve faced over the last year. Everyone
should have the opportunity to share the wonder and joy of the holiday season
with a child. There is a lot of healing there for elves, adults and children
alike.”
-Rebekah Farley, Volunteer
Specialist
“It was a memorable
experience to see the children receive the presents firsthand, especially since
Santa keeps us in the toy shop for most of the holiday season. I know this
party was directed towards the kids, but the parents enjoyed it just as much. The
evening was full of joyful songs, ear-to-ear smiles, and full belly laughs!”
-Colleen Stufflebeam,
Community Resiliency Specialist
“The children at the American
Red Cross party got a true tour of Santa’s workshop. As an elf I got to help
with presents but I also got to chase the children around and compliment their
face paint. We got to see the true blessings of our hard work! The
older I’ve gotten the more I’ve realized that finding presents under the tree
is pretty cool, but helping Santa makes for the best Christmas imaginable!”
-Sara Clifton, Community
Resiliency Specialist
“Right before each kid was
about to see Santa, some were over-the-moon excited, jumping up and down, and
some of the older kids were playing it cool. They probably felt they were a
little old to be meeting Santa, but you could tell that they were actually
secretly excited and happy to be there. And some of the really little ones were
a little shy to meet him, but they had fun too. The kids jumping up and down
had the biggest smiles on their faces I have ever seen. Their enthusiasm was
infectious.”
-Lydia Hignite, Community
Resiliency Specialist
