Businesses put on holiday wonderland for community
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ST. IGNATIUS – Aodhan Umphrey, 6, held very still while he transformed into Santa Clause at the St. Ignatius Christmas Carnival on Saturday at the Community Center.
With a painted white beard and a cherry red nose, Aodhan hopped down from the face painting station to move about the carnival. Glenda Colman, the elf from the North Pole, was managing the bean bag toss. The real Santa Claus was on hand to hear what kids wanted for Christmas.
A cookie station was open for kids and adults to frost holiday cookies before eating them, and kids could walk around a table full of yummy treats during the cake walk. Two hundred golf ball snowmen were ready for kids to add scarves and faces to before taking them home.
Brandon Burke spent the night before the event gluing cups to a flat board so kids could throw small rocks into the cups and get a candy surprise.
“I love this community,” he said. “I wanted to give back.”
During the ticket drawing contest, a couple thousand dollars in prizes were given out. Funding and prizes for the event were donated by local businesses. Evan Freshhour, 9, won a giant 20-ounce bucket full of cheese balls. He said he planned to eat them all that night, but his mother disagreed with him. Many other prizes were given out from electronics to basketball equipment.
Darren Orr helped organize the event alongside several other volunteers with the St. Ignatius Chamber of Commerce.
“All the businesses donated to this to help say thank you to the community for their business,” he said of the 10th annual event.
