Children’s Christmas Party of Jacksonville

Ja-Ru employees participated in the annual Children’s Christmas Party of Jacksonville.

The Children’s Christmas Party of Jacksonville last Saturday was a success! An estimated 4200 children each received several ticketed toys, a big bag of fun JA-RU toys, and a free stuffed animal from the Jacksonville Icemen fans.  Plus 454 extra lucky children received a bike, scooter, wagon or other wheeled riding toy, thanks to this year's Wheels Depot sponsors.  It all started with set up week, of course, with around 400 volunteers and convention center staff working hard to get the place in shape in record time – by Wednesday night we were 85% finished with our tasks!   On Saturday, there were an estimated 600 volunteers in the building to do all this handing out of toys and at least another 100 volunteers doing various other important jobs throughout the morning.  What a wonderful community event it was, with much thanks to you for your hard work during set up week and party day! 

A Wonderful Day:   The morning’s weather had a chill but hearts were warmed by the outpouring of the generous sponsor support of volunteers.  It started with the orientation at 8am which was very well attended.  The auto parade at 8:50 held in its convertible cars the Jags cheerleaders, Jaxson DeVille, Santa Claus, characters from Toy Story, a Queen and various other costumed VIP characters. At 9am, the ribbon to the entry door was cut by Santa Claus, the Mayor’s wife Molly and their two daughters.   The band struck up at 9am sharp as the first families walked in to the cheers and clapping of the onlookers near the entrance.  Smiling volunteers were set and ready in their booths to hand out lots of toys the next three hours.  At 11:50 the wait line slowed to a trickle and at 12:00 noon, as if on cue, there were no more attendees as the doors were closed.  We did not run out of toys, and in fact we had left over toys to give Toys for Tots who gave to even more children for Christmas.  We had plenty of clean up volunteers who, in record time, did the job of gathering left over toys and also dismantling many hours of entrance area decorations work (beautifully done last week by Black Knight volunteers). All in all, the event was a great success with lots of happy kids who walked out of the convention center building that day.