Help fill Santa’s sleigh
with toys for Rotary Christmas
Baskets at Saturday’s parade

Christmas Basket donation boxes have started to appear all over town and Santa Paula Rotarians are hoping you’ll “Believe!” in the joy of bringing holiday cheer to local needy families by giving a child a gift... and they’ll make it easy for you.

Just bring an unwrapped toy, or even a monetary donation, to Saturday’s 67th Annual Optimist Club Christmas Parade where Santa’s sleigh will be an entry including Elves who’ll collect donations along the route. 

Santa won’t be riding in the sleigh but rather keeping it empty to better enable all to fill it with toys... besides, he loves riding the Santa Paula Fire Engine to close the parade.

Rotarian Scott Dunbar built the 16-foot-long sleigh: “I always wanted one, just in case... you never know when it might come in handy. The truck I’ll pull it with will have a big red nose and antlers,” to resemble Santa’s famed lead reindeer Rudolph.   

“With the forced closure of our Faulkner Farm Pumpkin Patch, we’re really hurting for the funds to bring Christmas cheer to about 500 needy Santa Paula families,” said Rotarian Jason Cole, Chairman of the 2014 Christmas Basket Fund.

For seven years the month-long patch provided almost $100,000 to the Rotary Club, which was distributed throughout the community to other nonprofit organizations and programs.

The revenue also helped fund the Christmas Basket program that includes not only food for a holiday feast and a few days of tasty leftovers but also a toy for each child in the family, selected specifically for their age and gender. In many households the Christmas Basket presents are the only ones the children will receive.

Rotarians encourage toy donations that children can use to play together such as games and sports equipment as well as gifts for older children, but all are welcome.

Although the generous community also donates food and other items for the baskets, Cole said, “Christmas is for kids and that means a toy, a game, a basketball or a doll... and please remember we need gifts for the children ages 15-17, including gift cards, make-up, cameras, MP3 players, hair accessories, etc. This age group is always a bit forgotten.”

The sleigh in Saturday’s parade will make other appearances to spur donations: Dunbar hopes to park it at Fire Station 1 on South 10th Street immediately following the parade and thereafter move throughout town to give all an easy way to make a donation.

“We’ll also keep it parked on and off at our Troop Real Estate office,” located at the corner of 8th and Main streets. 

Dunbar noted he doesn’t want to oversell how impressive the sleigh is: “It is just painted plywood, not magic... except to some.”