MONTICELLO - The second annual Santa's Workshop was held on Saturday, Dec. 8. The event is intended to give all children in the Monticello area an opportunity to experience the joy of giving for Christmas.
Santa's Workshop was started by Kathleen Grossen and Julie Ruegsegger to help children find gifts for their parents, siblings and other family members. Monticello Fire Department hosted an annual visit with Santa, and then offered to bring children to Zwingli Church on the fire truck so the kids could shop, then ride the fire truck back to the fire station.
The children entered a large room with a handful of tickets and shopped for gifts all by themselves, with the occasional assistance of older helpers. The Monticello Chapter of the National Honor Society supported the activity and lent many helping hands by setting up on Friday night, wrapping many gifts throughout the day on Saturday and packing up at the end of the day.
Donations for the shopping experience were collected at Tri-Insure in Monticello, Washington Church and Zwingli Church throughout the last several months. Businesses who contributed were St. Vincent de Paul of Prairie du Sac, who donated items off its shelves, and Swiss Colony, who provided a large number of brand-new items from their catalogs. Monticello and Business Professional Association offered a monetary donation, which was pass directly to the Monticello Christmas Stocking Fund.
The end result of Santa's Workshop is to benefit the Christmas Stocking Fund. The primary goal is to give every child an opportunity to give to their loved ones, but a side benefit is that any profit goes to the fund to ensure that no child in Monticello will spend Christmas morning with an empty stocking. This year, more than $300 was raised for the charity.
Santa's Workshop was started by Kathleen Grossen and Julie Ruegsegger to help children find gifts for their parents, siblings and other family members. Monticello Fire Department hosted an annual visit with Santa, and then offered to bring children to Zwingli Church on the fire truck so the kids could shop, then ride the fire truck back to the fire station.
The children entered a large room with a handful of tickets and shopped for gifts all by themselves, with the occasional assistance of older helpers. The Monticello Chapter of the National Honor Society supported the activity and lent many helping hands by setting up on Friday night, wrapping many gifts throughout the day on Saturday and packing up at the end of the day.
Donations for the shopping experience were collected at Tri-Insure in Monticello, Washington Church and Zwingli Church throughout the last several months. Businesses who contributed were St. Vincent de Paul of Prairie du Sac, who donated items off its shelves, and Swiss Colony, who provided a large number of brand-new items from their catalogs. Monticello and Business Professional Association offered a monetary donation, which was pass directly to the Monticello Christmas Stocking Fund.
The end result of Santa's Workshop is to benefit the Christmas Stocking Fund. The primary goal is to give every child an opportunity to give to their loved ones, but a side benefit is that any profit goes to the fund to ensure that no child in Monticello will spend Christmas morning with an empty stocking. This year, more than $300 was raised for the charity.
