After forgoing last year due to COVID-19, the Future Business Leaders of America’s Breakfast with Santa proved to be another success. There were holiday games, food, a laser obstacle course, face painting, a student Santa played by seniors Kelly Cappuccio and Raphael Yanoff, and even a snowman from the Disney movie played by senior Ty Wilkinson. 

FBLA co-president senior Viviana Vergara said, “It turned out really well. We made a profit of around $2800. In fact, $1500 will go to Feeding Pennsylvania, PA FBLA’s charity project for the year.”

One of the reasons the event went well was it was one of the first large community gathering events this school year, and many were eager to join. Vivi explains, “We had so many volunteers and lots of families came out to the breakfast. And although it was a completely student-run event, we had a lot of support from the admin.” 

Several HH teachers even attended, including Special Education Assistant Mr. Kevin Garland, who said, “Even though the event wasn’t for me, it was for my kids, just seeing a smile on their faces is good enough for me.” 

Mr. Garland also said he felt that there were various activities to occupy children of varying ages. “I think my oldest son loved the laser obstacle with the strings in the back of the café the most, while my youngest enjoyed getting his face painted and making his own ornaments.”

FBLA co-president senior Joanne Lee agreed that the event was a success. “I could not be more happy with how the event turned out. The event went on smoothly and tons of people came.” 

However, FBLA’s success did not come without challenges. 

Vivi explained, “The event planning did not just happen overnight. It was months in the working, waiting for approval.” Joanne also said they were worried about turnout since “the last Breakfast with Santa was before COVID, we were not sure how people would feel about bringing their children to a community breakfast.” 

This inability to predict the event’s turnout led to difficulty in the planning process. For example, Joanne said, “Vivi and I were in charge of buying the food, which was especially difficult because we did not want to run out of food nor buy too much and have to throw it out.” 

At the end of the event, however, there was plenty of food leftover — except for the candy canes. Joanne said that “all the uneaten food was either donated to Feed-A-Friend, given to the Feed-A-Friend volunteers who were also there that day, or taken home by any volunteers who wanted it.”