MELISSA PINERO, Contributing Writer
The NBTHS Key Club has been working with an organization called MyGoal Autism for the past four years. Usually our club holds a toy drive and we provide volunteers for their annual holiday party which is held at St. Peter's Hospital. With the pandemic this year, we still wanted to assist the organization in their holiday planning, but needed to get creative.
Part one of our plan still included a toy drive. NBTHS students and staff generously donated over 70 toys for the event. Part two, was where the creativity was needed. It was decided that a Drive Thru event would occur where children with autism and their siblings could remain in their cars and come visit Santa and Mrs. Clause. With the help of Mr. Kneller, Mrs. Ezdinli-Palazzo and Mr. Missurell, we were able to use the parking lot at NBTHS for our event.
On Sunday, December 13th, the Key Club acted as elves, helping to set up and assisting Santa (all while being safely masked and socially distanced), and we had over 30 children who came to spend some time with Santa. Santa and Mrs. Claus were able to interact with the children and take pictures (also in a safe way). It was a wonderful day and a great success!
Comments