‘Tis the season
Lindsay Public Safety host annual Santa Night
One of the most anticipated events in the City of Lindsay wasn’t about to let the pandemic get the best of it, especially not on the watch of the Lindsay Police Officers Association who organized and hosted the annual Lindsay Santa Night at the Lindsay Public Safety building on Friday evening.
“Santa Night has been going on for many, many years,” said Lindsay Police Officer Adriana Nave, who was played an intricate part in organizing and hosting the event. “I have been here almost 12 years and it was going on way before I even started. This has been a tradition, here at the police department, for over 20 years. It started with just a few people coming, and it’s just grown so much. We average, well before this year, about 1,000 kids a night.”
Well before the start time of 4 p.m., cars were lined down Gale Hill Avenue and wrapped around a good part of Honolulu Street. Volun
teers from Lindsay High School bustled about the inside of the public safety building getting the toys and goodies in order to pass out. And although the event was put under some restrictions, the volunteers were ready and willing to comply. Armed with masks and hand sanitizer, the volunteers reached over barriers to hand visitors their gifts, cookies and candy canes.
“This isn’t like how it usually is,” said Nave. “We always have a Santa and the kids get to come in and sit on Santa’s lap. They get a candy cane, and then they get to pick their toy. This year, what’s so different is we are having to do a drive-thru. We have to set up rails, and we have all our volunteers. Usually we have way more volunteers, but this year we can’t. We are taking all of the precautions we can. One of the things I told them was that we can’t trade toys. The kids get what they get. That’s just something we have to do.”
Friday night ran on trial and error as Nave, her volunteers and a few of her fellow officers, directed the flow of traffic. Visitors would drive through the fire department’s bay doors to be greeted by lines of toys. The children would point out which toy they wanted, and then were given their toys and led through to the exit.
“This is our first year, and that’s what I told the (volunteers),” said Nave. “I told them if they get overwhelmed or something isn’t going right, just to let me know. We can get ourselves together again, and then we can go. I told them that a lot of the kids coming, it might be the only bigger gift they get and it’s not even a big gift. But we are so lucky that we were able to get donations from some of the companies here in town.”
When the idea came about to host a drivethru style Santa Night, Nave and the rest of the Lindsay Police Officers Association were uncertain about asking for donations, but in the end the community pulled through, allowing the association to continue it’s annual holiday tradition, despite being stuck in the middle of a pandemic.
“At first we were very hesitant about asking, because we always ask local business for money and for donations, but we were hesitant because of the fact that it has been a hard year for everybody,” said Nave. “We don’t want them to feel obligated to give us anything. What we did do is reach out to the bigger companies and they came through. We are so grateful to them. It’s been awesome.”
Nave gave a big thank you to Stars and Stripes Car Wash, E&E Industries, A&M Produce and Loyalty Car Club, Valley Pure, the Rib Cook-off Committee, Jason Anderson, Doug Deleo, Lindsay Gardens, Kiwanis Club, Lindsay Rotary, Marks Audio, Fastrip and Lindsay Tire and Auto Care Center, who were the biggest donators to the event. In total, Nave estimated more than 250 toys had been donated, on top of the monetary donations as well. On Friday evening, they were hosting the drive-thru event until they were completely out of toys to give.
In addition to the companies that donated to the event, several organizations were out at the event passing out information and food to those waiting in line to receive their toys. The Sikh Community of Lindsay was out handing out pizza. The Chamber of Commerce, Lindsay Healthy Start, The Spirit and the Bride Kingdom Coalition and the Immanuel Baptist Church were also passing out goodies and booklets of information to waiting visitors.
“One of our main things is that we want the community to know that we are here for them no matter what,” said Nave. “We have been going out of our way to accommodate because of the pandemic.
We were not going to not have tonight. This is a big deal to us. Our community is very, very tight and they know us, and we’ve been here, so I think that’s why it’s important to us.”
But the giving doesn’t stop with Friday night. Nave is on a mission to provide every child in need with a toy this holiday season.
“I’ve been taking people’s information and I’ve been contacting the schools and they are giving me a list of kids who need toys,” said Nave. “(Today), China’s Alley and Lindsay’s Finest are having a toy drive at China’s Alley from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., and those toys are going to be donated directly to all these kids that don’t get one tonight.”
Nave said she’s still accepting donations, and those wishing to donate can contact her at anave@lindsay.ca.us.