St. Coleman

 

For the past 15 or 20 years, Saint Coleman Men's Club has sponsored
a party before Christmas for the children in Angelica House and Providence
Place, as well as other families in need in the our community.  Each year Men's
Club volunteers gather donations for months prior to the event, donate their
time and effort to shopping for the children, organize the gifts and match them
to specific children, decorate the Parish Hall and prepare a Christmas dinner
for the children and their families.  As a result of their efforts, dozens
of children, for whom there might otherwise have been no Christmas, enjoy a day with Santa
and are able to take home gifts straight from the North Pole.  That's right, Santa
himself takes time from his busy toy-building schedule to comes to this party! 
In order to make the trip as quickly as possible and allow his reindeer to rest
up for Christmas Eve, he comes by helicopter and lands in the field behind the
Parish Hall.

    
                              

                                                                             Santa landing on the St. Coleman field and being greeted by
some of the children.

    
                  
                




                                                                                                     


 

---

                            

                                                                                                                                       
Santa and friends.



       
                            

---

                                                                                             

                                                                                                                    Father Foudy asking Santa for a new school wing.

 

---

    
    




                                                                                                        
The elves get to work and dinner is served.

---

                                                                                     

                                                                                                                           
The elves take a bow.

---

                                                             
The Children's Party Man

The man who makes this happen year after year is our own
"Doc" Cowell (who luckily does not dress like this for the party!). 
Assisted by Chief Elf Manny Darowiche and a few others, Doc
always makes this event a success.  
Doc has dedicated the last
two months of every year to this cause for the last 12 or 13 years! 
Were it not for Doc, a couple of generations of less fortunate children in our
community would have had very many meager Christmases. 

Next
year, please volunteer to help out with the shopping, preparation, or the
party itself.  There is a tremendous amount of preparation required for
this event, and the regular elves are always up at the North Pole at that
time of year.  If you can help, contact Doc at
drtcowell@yahoo.com anytime between
now and next Christmas to see how you can contribute to this effort.  We can
guarantee that you won't get much recognition -- the local news cameras
won't be there -- but participating in this project, giving up some of your time in the
Advent season, and seeing the faces of the little children as they sit on
Santa's lap will help remind you of the reason for the season.