RSSOperation Good Cheer
Santa listens to a request from Aden Wieczorek, 4, of Clifton during Operation Good Cheer on Sunday at a Christmas party for more than 500 Head Start children at the Lincoln Park Barn. The event was sponsored by Rocky Mountain Service Employment Redevelopment.
Angel Richey, 2, of Grand Junction clutches a present she chose from a pile of gifts Sunday at the Operation Good Cheer event.
QUICKREAD
WANT TO HELP WITH
NEXT YEAR’S PARTY?
Anyone interested in donating money to Rocky Mountain Service Employment Redevelopment to ensure the Western Slope has an Operation Good Cheer party next year at Christmas, call 303-480-9394 or 720-254-4200.
Donations also can be mailed to Rocky Mountain SER/Jobs For Progress RE: Operation Good Cheer 2012 at 3555 Pecos St., Denver CO 80211. Or visit rmser.org.
Locally, contact the Rocky Mountain SER Western Slope Head Start at 970-243-9318.
Little Julie Stout was ready for the jolly old man’s question.
When Santa Claus asked the 7-year-old Grand Junction girl if she was good this year, “I said yes.”
The chance to sit on Santa’s lap was one of many treats showered upon children, such as Julie, who were invited to the Operation Good Cheer holiday party Sunday at Lincoln Park Barn.
It was the first year Rocky Mountain Service Employment Redevelopment sponsored a holiday party on the Western Slope, giving about 520 children ages 3 to 5 enrolled in the Western Slope Head Start program — plus their siblings ages 13 and younger — the chance to meet Santa, eat cookies and choose one wrapped present from underneath the Christmas tree.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Mark Mayasich, family services coordinator with Rocky Mountain agency on the Western Slope.
In all, nearly 1,100 presents were wrapped and ready to gift Sunday to individual children invited from the Western Slope Head Start service area in Mesa, Delta, Garfield and Moffat counties.
The dream to give Christmas to children of low-income families affiliated with Western Slope Head Start was realized only two weeks ago when enough private donations rolled into the Rocky Mountain offices in Denver to expand its holiday party to this region.
Operation Good Cheer began last year in Denver. This year, enough money was donated to have six separate parties throughout Colorado, said Jermaine Stafford, director of the agency’s Statewide Youth and Community Service Division.
Stafford attended Sunday’s party, the first of the six scheduled, and thanked everyone who scrambled to ensure it went well.
Count siblings Whitney and Levi Joseph of Palisade among those children who left happy.
After they sat on Santa’s lap, Whitney, 5, and Levi, 3, selected their presents and grabbed some cookies and adjourned to a table to unwrap their surprises.
Whitney, resplendent in her holiday dress, let out a little scream when she opened her Squinkies Gumball Surprise Playhouse. Even the box was pink.
“Look what I got?” Whitney exclaimed to her grandmother.
Not to be outdone, Levi, resplendent in his cowboy boots, opened a box of miniature trucks and tractors.
“Oooooo,” he said to no one in particular.
Judy Lopez, director of the Western Slope Head Start, poured punch as a steady stream of parents and children walked through Lincoln Park Barn during the two hours of the party. People were lined up outside the barn before Sunday’s event started.
“This is awesome,” Lopez said.
Brothers Damyon, 6, Dakota, 3, and Drazen Tix, 1, came all the way from Parachute to attend Operation Good Cheer. They even brought their parents Christina and Jeremiah Tix along, and they were among the first to arrive Sunday.
“Mommy, hurry up,” Christina Tix remembers her eldest son pleading while the family drove Interstate 70.
The patience paid off, not only the Tix boys, but also for Fruita’s Shawn Russell.
He ripped the paper off his present to expose a remote-controlled sports car.
“I am happy,” Russell said, beaming. He had two such cars before Sunday but broke one and gave the other to his cousin who always wanted one but never got it. “I think it’s pretty cool being here.”
For all the joy there was, as adults watched children open gifts and stuff their mouths with candy and cookies, not every child left Sunday with a new unwrapped toy.
Some, such as the Stout sisters, left with the presents still wrapped with a polite reminder that Christmas is not quite here.
Julie Stout and her sisters Adriana, 6, Natalie, 5, and Erika Stout, 3, could only watch while their mother stacked their still-wrapped presents neatly on the table.
Any guesses as to what’s inside?
“Nope,” Julie said.
“A doll?” Adriana guessed. “I shook it a little.”
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