WATSONVILLE—Hundreds flocked to the Veterans of Foreign Wars station in Watsonville to gobble down some breakfast and tell jolly old St. Nicholas their Christmas wishes at the 29th annual Breakfast with Santa on Sunday.
Droves of kids and parents waited in line to saddle up next to Santa Claus and read off their wishlist, while several others feasted on a large meal courtesy of multiple local businesses, including McDonald’s, Martinelli’s, Coast Produce and D’La Colmena.
Numerous other local businesses such as Foreverfly Skate and Apparel, Freedom Meat Lockers, Cassidy’s Pizza and Ella’s at the Airport donated raffle prizes and staff from Home Depot—flanked by multiple volunteers—helped children create holiday nicknacks in Santa’s Workshop.
Mayor Francisco “Paco” Estrada donned the red suit and long white beard for the second half of the event and quizzed the kids on whether they had been naughty or nice and what they wanted for Christmas in between “ho-ho-hos.”
“It’s such a warm, great feeling to see those kids be that happy,” Estrada said.
The event has served as a fundraiser for Recreation Advocates, a local nonprofit that helps young people stay active by providing scholarships to recreation programs that they otherwise could not afford.
Most recently, according to Recreation Advocates Secretary Brenda Armstrong, it helped send a soccer team from the P.V. United program to Las Vegas for a national tournament. They helped cover costs for travel and hotels.
“They deserved to be there, they earned it,” Recreation Advocates President Annette Baldwin. “We were happy we could help them.”
The event for the last 28 years has been at the Watsonville Senior Center but made the move over to the VFW this year to accommodate growing attendance.
It is Recreation Advocates’ largest fundraiser of the year, Baldwin said.
“And we had a great crowd today,” she said.
Baldwin worked for the City of Watsonville’s recreation department for 25 years and joined Recreation Advocates following her retirement. She said she grew up in Watsonville with her great aunt, who could not always afford to enroll her in recreation programs because of cost.
“I wanted to make sure that we could help young people do whatever they want to do and help them succeed,” she said.
Armstrong, the prevention program manager for the County of Santa Cruz’s Human Services Agency, said the event is one of the most stressful she helps organize but also one of the most rewarding.
“It feeds my soul,” she said. “To see the kids running around and helping families have an affordable family meal at this time of year, it’s a great feeling.”
For information on Recreation Advocates visit https://www.recreationadvocates.org.
