With cheery Christmas music bringing out the holiday spirit, the Future Business Leaders of America club brought extra joy to many families’ holiday seasons with its annual Breakfast with Santa on Dec. 7. 

The event was an opportunity for families to gather to participate in festivities. There were over ten activities for kids, including holiday cookie decorating, ornament-making, reindeer food, face painting and of course, meeting Santa Claus.

FBLA also had a wide variety of breakfast foods for the families to enjoy. Numerous doughnuts, bagels and soft pretzels decorated the tables.

Julia Warden, head coordinator and vice president of FBLA, said, “Breakfast with Santa is a fun way to bring families together for the holidays. It was rewarding to see all the kids’ faces light up when they saw Santa Claus. Moments like that really made all the hard work and planning that went into the event worth it.”

FBLA also arranged for multiple sponsors, such as Bryn and Dane’s, Magerks, Taco Bell, Costco and the Farm and Fisherman House, to contribute gift cards and donations for raffle baskets. They focused more attention on the raffle baskets this year. Their hard work paid off, considering FBLA sold 1,000 tickets for the 12 raffle baskets.

In both years running the event, Warden said she also enjoyed seeing how the event gave back to the community. She said that “not only does it contribute to the holiday spirit of many children within our local communities, but also [by raising money to donate] to FBLA’s state project, the American Heart Association.” FBLA raised $700.

Breakfast with Santa was made possible due to the help of volunteers, like freshman Sofia Colibraro. “Volunteering at Breakfast with Santa was unforgettable. Seeing how excited local children were to be at the event that I helped set up was an amazing feeling. I can’t wait to do it again next year!” she said.