Cars lined Sixth Street Friday evening as families inside waited their turn to pull up to the school’s main entrance and get out for a visit with Santa Claus.
Making his annual trip to the school, this year, mask over snowy white beard, Papa Noel was available through an open window in the Media Center.
The event was organized by Title One 1 teacher Alissa Gibbs and head of Community Education Rich Kern.
“We’ve been doing it for quite a few years,” Kern said. “It’s usually the Parade of Trees (where each class decorates a tree), but being we couldn’t do it inside, Alissa thought ‘Let’s try a drive-through Santa.’”
While kids had a few moments to visit with Santa, typically dropping off a Christmas list and posing for a photo, Kern handed out “family fun bags” with themed coloring projects and stickers and candy canes, both the traditional peppermint kind and plastic ones filled with chocolates.
“We thought it would at least give the kids something if we can’t set up all of our trees,” Kern said. “We’ve got to keep the Christmas spirit going.”
Temps in the mid-30s helped make the event a success. In typical Kern fashion, holiday music was part of setting the mood.
“It’s a great night,” Kern said. “We usually have 100 kids, so hopefully we’ll still have about 100.”
The traditional Santa’s visit in Cleveland used to be held in the Fire Hall but was moved to the school a decade ago. The CFD is still involved though, giving Santa a ride to the school in a firetruck.
Rich Kern hands a bag of treats to one of Santa’s visitors.