Current Conditions
74°F - M/CLOUDY
(280) (137) (88) (40) (38) (33) (30) (30) (3) (2)
Wearing their own Santa hats, 17 children in the Salvation Army's after-school latchkey program gave a hug and sang a Christmas carol for Santa, who gave each child a gift Wednesday afternoon at the Chamber's holiday party at Southern Market.
VIDEO: Chamber brings holiday cheer to latchkey kids
Ray'von Thomas, 10, said the football that he was twirling around was just what he wanted.
Five-year-old Jevante Vargus said he was all ready to drive the Thomas the Tank Engine trains he got onto his tracks.
As soon as she got it out of the box, 7-year-old Selena Soto began rocking and carrying around her baby doll, which she promptly named "Baba."
Brianna Jones, 5, got a Mr. Potato Head.
"I'll have fun with it," she said.
Ajanae Cruz, 10, said the journal and Jurassic Park III DVD she received were "really nice."
Other children received such gifts as LEGOs, a Belle doll with a horse, a radio-controlled car and a basketball.
"I think it's great. For some kids it's the only Christmas gift they're going to get," said Santa, aka Doug Plank, a Chamber board member. "This is my third or fourth year doing this for the Chamber. I love doing it. It's great fun. You get all kinds of reaction from the kids."
The holiday parties began in 1996 when the Chamber staff decided to spread holiday cheer to neighborhood children in lieu of a staff party, according to Samantha Seifried, member relations manager.
"We adopted the after-school Salvation Army kids," Seifried said. "We annually get 25 to 50 kids."
The gifts are donated by staff and board members, as well as contributions from Chamber businesses, she said.
Melissa Schload, director of the latchkey program, said there are currently 22 children in kindergarten through fifth grade enrolled in the program.
The children attend King, Fulton, Burrowes and Carter & MacRae elementary schools.
"But we want to expand," Schload said.
The latchkey program is open at 6:30 a.m. for the children who eat breakfast there, participate in activities, play in the gym and work in the computer lab before they are taken to school.
After school, the children have a snack, can work on homework with one-on-one attention, participate in activities and computer lab and play in the gym until 5:30 p.m., Schload said.
