Each year, all of the service organizations in Buena Park pull together to help less fortunate children have a happy holiday season with necessity clothing, such as a winter jacket.
The children get warm clothes, shoes, a goodie bag filled by the Soroptimists, and a picture with Santa, which helps the children have a nice Christmas and a happy holiday.
Each year, all of the service organizations in Buena Park pull together to help less fortunate children have a happy holiday season with necessity clothing, such as a winter jacket.
The children get warm clothes, shoes, a goodie bag filled by the Soroptimists, and a picture with Santa, which helps the children have a nice Christmas and a happy holiday.
Organizations rotate hosting the event, which is held yearly at Buena Park Downtown, with this year’s host group headed up by chairperson John Muller of the Knights of Columbus. They also headed up the event last year.
Next year the Soroptimist International of Buena Park will do the honors.
“I love this program and it’s one of those cases with the economy like it is, that if we can do something to help, that’s great,” Muller said. “It’s a challenge, but fun to coordinate with all of the organizations and the school districts.”
Each child is assigned a ”personal shopper” from one of the organizations, with each group donating $100 per child, to shop at Sears for needed clothing, shoes at Payless and a picture with Santa in Center Court at Buena Park Downtown.
Muller said BPDT also helps with the setup and provides morning snacks for volunteers.
“It’s a big group effort,” he said.
This year’s shopping spree was held on Saturday, Dec. 8.
Volunteers who escort each of the children one-on-one show up as early as 6 a.m. to get things rolling for the day for the approximately 200 children at the annual event.
When children check in, they receive different-colored wristbands from the Soroptimists for each area of the Mall they will visit throughout the morning, so it’s a very organized event.
Some of the other participating organizations have included Savanna School District members, Buena Park and Centralia School Districts , Hope Center , Speech and Language Development Center, Buena Park Rotary International and the Interact Club from Buena Park High School, sponsored by Rotary and Villa Park High School .
Other organizations that have helped include the St. Pius PPTO, VFW, Buena Park Noon Lions Club, Buena Park Woman’s Club, Buena Park Moose Lodge, The Buena Park Elks, American Legion, Gold Country Escrow and many individuals.
Also helping have been the Optimists Club and the Orange County Buddhist Church and many local merchants.
For information and to donate to the worthy cause or to get involved, call:
Buena Park Noon Lions Club information, call President Art Brown at 714-291-1927 or visit www.silveradodays.com.
Knight of Columbus information, call John Muller at 714-883-1836
Rotary information, e-mail Dennis and Christiane Salts at info@bprotary.org.
For BPDT information, call 714-503-5000 or visit www.buenaparkdowntown.com.
Loreen Berlin may be reached at loreenberlin@verizon.net
