By Valerie Kittner
Fifteen Santas took to the streets of Huntsville on Saturday, December 10, 2022, to collect some money for local families that can use a boost this Christmas.
Our goal was to remind people what Christmas is all about. This is our second year doing this in Huntsville. We are mirroring an event that has been going on for over 25 years in Whitby, North Bay and many other cities have joined in the fun as well. The goal is to find a family in need (Santa Cause) who will receive the money we have collected at the end of the evening.
Each Santa is asked to donate $25. Our route this year started at Chuck’s Roadhouse for dinner. They generously donated a $50 gift card. The next stop was the Canvas Brewery, then on to Mill on Main which also donated a $50 gift card, then we finished up at Pub on the Docks. Everyone was so generous on our route. The patrons just kept giving us money with a little tug at their hearts as they gave it to Head Santa Val Kittner.
We want to make this even bigger next year. We want to reach out to companies or businesses that would like to donate to our grassroots movement. Better yet, go out and buy a Santa Suit and join us on our route next Christmas.
By the end of the evening, we had raised $1,100 dollars to help brighten some local Muskoka familys’ holiday season. We have decided that the donation will be going to a YWCA Muskoka program.The program is called Circles Muskoka and it works under the umbrella of YWCA. It is a community-based poverty reduction initiative that creates relationships across economic boundaries. It matches people of low income with people of middle or upper income. They have identified a few families in the area who are working extremely hard to change their life circumstances. For more information about the organization, contact for this is Kelly Jones at [email protected]
We hope to see more Santas out next year to bring some more Christmas cheer to local families. The more the merrier. Ho Ho Ho! For more information or to participate in our grassroots pub crawl, contact Valerie Kittner at [email protected]
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
There is a contact email in the article.
Hey, this sounds awesome but sadly I had no idea it was happening or I would have participated! How do we get on the notification list for next year?