2018 Annual St. George Fire District Santa Parade to Benefit St. Vincent de Paul
The St. George Fire Department began the tradition of neighborhood Santa parades back in the day when they were a volunteer fire department. Members would tour the neighborhoods on their fire trucks in the weeks before Christmas and throw candy to the children. The tradition continues today and people in the neighborhoods served by the St. George Fire Department look forward to this event.
The event has grown bigger and the emphasis is on giving as well as receiving. Santa still throws candy to the children, plus the St. George Fire Department collects food and toys for a local organization. For the third year, the grateful recipient of food and toys will be St. Vincent de Paul. Eldon Ledoux, public information officer for the St. George Fire Department said that it is not unusual for them to collect 20,000 pounds of food at the annual Santa parade. Can you imagine how much that would benefit St. Vincent de Paul?
In order for the event to be a success, we need volunteers to assist with it. Specifically, on Saturday and Sunday, December 1st and 2nd and Saturday and Sunday, December 8th and 9th, the St. George Fire Department will maneuver along four different routes throwing candy to children and collecting food and toys. On December 1st and 2nd, four drivers of open bed pick up trucks or vans are needed as well as two passengers in each vehicle to collect the food and toys that will be donated along the route. Also, on December 8th and 9th, four drivers of open bed pick up trucks or vans are needed as well as two passengers in each vehicle to collect the food and toys that will be donated along the route.
You are invited to decorate your vehicle and to throw candy to children along the route. It will be tons of fun while doing something very worthwhile to benefit St. Vincent de Paul and the people it serves.
Details regarding the addresses of the various routes are on the Sign Up Genius as well as the times you would need to commit to volunteer. (You will note on the Sign Up Genius that the end time on all days is listed as 5:00 PM. Actually, the end time will be when the route is completed or when the sun goes down. I put 5:00 PM so that you can plan your schedule in the event it takes until 5:00 PM to complete the route).
At the conclusion of the parade, we would like for the drivers of the vehicles to bring the toys and canned food items to the warehouse that we will use to wrap and sort the gifts and sort the food. We are located at 7337 Florida Boulevard in the Bon Carre Mall in space #7167. I have attached a map of Bon Carre Mall. You should take Holmes Drive and proceed down to our space which will be on the right. Please call me at 333-8761 as you are leaving the parade route so that I can go over to Bon Carre Mall and meet you there.
This is a golden opportunity for St. Vincent de Paul to collaborate with the St. George Fire Department and reap tremendous benefits. We are feeding record numbers of people and will be so grateful for the donated canned food items; and, as you know, we will give two gifts each to as many as 2,000 children in need this year. We need these gift donations and would be ever so grateful for them.
PLEASE help if you can. If you have any questions, please phone Desha Martin at 383-7837, Ext. 207
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