Santa’s arrival brings merriment to elves and all at Rest Haven

Rain prevented Santa from landing by helicopter as planned, but the young adults greeting him in elf guise did not let that undermine Santa’s arrival to town with Mrs. Claus. They rose to the moment and attended to hundreds of guests at Rest Haven.

Though challenged, the elves were not deterred from excitedly greeting their guests of the season, Santa and Mrs. Claus and their fans. Santa had over 300 visitors at Rest Haven in just four hours. This is a tradition that has been going on now for 6 years. The crowd was a steady flow of people coming and going, young and old. One young family showed up long before Santa for the excitement of seeing his arrival.

The elves began as a group of four five years ago and are now a group of nine with disabilities that don’t deter their celebration with hundreds of other celebrants.

As a mother of one and the aunt of another elf said, “We started with several young adults with disabilities and now have three new elves, Steven, Alexza and Justin, under the guidance of their head elf Jessica. In the past we had elves Valeyne, Shannon, Stephanie, Dominic and Mario. We’d like to acknowledge how thankful we are to have you grace our home, which once housed the blind. You welcomed children and adults as they came to visit Santa in this beautifully renovated home called Rest Haven. We couldn’t have done it without you all.”

Also, 20 students from the Monroe Woodbury School District music group came to sing and play instruments, and Dr. Crone played the the baby grand piano in the parlor. This group has grown from 4 to 20 kids from the local high school.

One of the boys that attended loves music. His restrictions did not stop him from dancing the day away.

Story and photos contributed by Tim Mitts