Nearly 150 children were served during the annual “Children’s Shopping Spree” Saturday, Dec. 13, at Buena Park Downtown.
This year’s event was headed-up by Soroptimist International of Buena Park, chaired by Soroptimist Frannie Donoghue.
Each year, for many years, the different service organizations within the city have rotated the leadership of the event, with next year planned as a committee effort.
The project helps less fortunate children have a happy holiday season with necessity clothing such as a winter jacket.
Nearly 150 children were served during the annual “Children’s Shopping Spree” Saturday, Dec. 13, at Buena Park Downtown.
This year’s event was headed-up by Soroptimist International of Buena Park, chaired by Soroptimist Frannie Donoghue.
Each year, for many years, the different service organizations within the city have rotated the leadership of the event, with next year planned as a committee effort.
The project helps less fortunate children have a happy holiday season with necessity clothing such as a winter jacket.
“It was fun and rewarding to be chair of the event to help all of these children,” said Donoghue. “We appreciate all of the volunteers from the organizations, businesses and individual donors – a lot of people just stopped by to volunteer,” she said.
Other volunteers recruited by the Soroptimists, included Knights of Columbus, Rotary, and the Buena Park Noon Lions Club, along with Savanna School District and Buena Park Chief of Police Corey Sianez and City Manager Jim Vanderpool.
The children received warm clothes, shoes, tickets to Knott’s Berry Farm, some candy and a picture with Santa, which helps the children have a nice Christmas and a happy holiday season.
Even Santa’s helpers are volunteers – AKA Councilman Art Brown and wife Chris Brown as Mrs. Claus, who serves on the Centralia School District Board.
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.
BPDT helps with the setup and provides morning snacks for volunteers. It’s a big group effort.
Volunteers who escort each of the children one-on-one showed up as early as 7 a.m. to get things rolling for the children at the annual event; the number of children varies each year.
When children checked in, they received different-colored wristbands from Soroptimists for each area of the Mall they visited throughout the morning; it’s very organized.
Some of the other participating organizations have included Buena Park and Centralia School Districts, Hope Center, Speech and Language Development Center, Rotary Interact Club from Buena Park High School, sponsored by Rotary and Villa Park High School .
Other organizations that have helped include the St. Pius V PPTO, VFW, Buena Park Woman’s Club, Buena Park Moose Lodge, The Buena Park Elks, American Legion 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, visit www.SilveradoDays.com or call President Laura Rodehaver at 714-739-8927.
For Knights 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.
