Christmas wishes were granted at annual Ho-Ho Express

Santa Claus made his yearly trip from the North Pole to hand out presents during the annual Ho-Ho Express on Dec. 19.
 Due to COVID-19 restrictions the event was held a bit differently. Weiser High School principal Dave Davies and Santa’s helper Joe Malay figured out the logistics on how to handle the shopping and distribution of the gifts to maintain social distancing.
 Instead of students from Weiser High School and staff from the Weiser School District going shopping with the kids the students and staff went shopping for the kids.
 “It was an incredible effort on behalf of the high school students that went shopping and all the faculty members,” said Davies.
 Around 50 high school students and a dozen or so staff members took between three and five kids wish lists and went shopping to fill those lists. All the presents were then brought back and were numbered and packaged in red Christmas bags.
 To make the process run smoothly each recipient was given a number that corresponded with their gift. On the date the gifts were dispersed a volunteer matched the child’s family vehicle with their number. They then drove up to Santa and with the help of his elves were given their gift.
 “It was completely different but what was amazing was there was the same amount of enthusiasm to make sure this happened,” Davies said.
 Janaye Grant was one of Santa’s little helpers who went shopping and enjoyed the experience. “It was kinda fun,” Grant said. We went to Walmart and immediately headed straight for the toy aisle. We picked out the toys. When we went to checkout, we were $1 over but I had a $100 bill and it was magically paid.
 During a normal year Santa gathers up his helpers and with the help of the Weiser School District loads up around 400 children in buses and heads to Walmart in Ontario.
 It takes a team of volunteers, bus drivers from the school district, a police escort from Weiser High School to Walmart, elves who help the children fill their Christmas wish list and gift wrappers to make the whole experience special.
 “I would like to thank the community for what they have done and how they supported this. This is a 2020 year, everything has kind of been tweaked, angled and changed but so far Santa’s elves in Weiser have a fabulous program this year,” Santa said.
 “The great thing about how it was handled this year is the kids won’t know what is in the red bag until they get back to their home and it will be a surprise to them,” said Santa.
 “The little elves who went shopping had a great time shopping for them. That is a big part of it. Hopefully, things will change. Everything ran really smooth like eggnog and chocolate chip cookies,” Santa said.
 

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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