Santa meets NFM kids for breakfast
Santa has made a list and is checking it twice, and on Saturday, at the North Fort Myers Recreation Center, he came to hear from the naughty and nice.
The annual Breakfast with Santa event, in which nearly 250 people came for a continental breakfast, crafts, games and a meeting with Santa to put in their requests for Christmas.
The kids and adults had a pancake and sausage breakfast, made reindeer food as a craft, played reindeer games like pin the nose on the reindeer, and wrote letters to Santa, to be delivered to the North Pole.
But Santa was the star and the kids got to take photos with him and give him their Christmas lists.
Marcus Balgas, 10, said he didn’t really want to go because he wanted to play video games. His mother made him come to the event, and he was happy she did.
“I told Santa I wanted a monitor and a gaming setup for a video game system,” Marcus said. “My mom woke me up and told me I had to go. But I enjoyed everything. I’m glad I went.”
Allison Proctor, Marcus’s mom, said she thought breakfast, and the entire event, was a great idea.
“Writing letters to Santa and seeing Santa was great,” Proctor said. “This is my first time at this event, though we went to similar ones in New Jersey.”
Jamie Worley, who organized the event, said things moved very smoothly throughout the morning and that they slightly exceeded their expectations.
“We added another element in that we had our Club Rec kids pair up and make gingerbread houses. We’re having the people who come in vote on them,” Worley said. “With the crowd we had, we bobbed and weaved really well.”
This event could not be put on without the help from volunteers such as the Tre Boston Beyond Belief Foundation, which has done so since its founding in 2017.
Iris de Hoyos, executive director of the organization, said it’s the rec center that deserves the credit for putting on a great event every year.
“We had volunteers all over helping give families in the area a very Merry Christmas,” de Hoyos said. “People don’t realize what the rec center does for the community by creating events that offer safe opportunities for families all over Lee County.”
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com