Christmas Party for Underprivileged Children at the Swordfish Grill & Tiki in Cortez, Florida

Christmas is a time for joy, laughter, and celebration. However, for underprivileged children, the holiday season can be a difficult time. Many of these children come from low-income families and may not have the means to celebrate Christmas in the same way that their more privileged peers do.

One way to help these children have a happy holiday season is to organize a Christmas party for them. For the past six years, the Blessing Bags Project and the Swordfish Grill and Tiki have worked together and put together a fun and exciting event that brings joy and laughter to the lives of less fortunate children in our area.  This year, the event was held on Sunday, December, 11.

There were great activities for the kids that included decorating cookies, face painting, playing games and of course the star of the event, Santa Claus!  The wonderful team at the Swordfish prepared a phenomenal breakfast for everyone attending that included French Toast, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage and so much more.  These kids don’t always get a warm breakfast and sometimes no breakfast at all.  It was a special treat for them, and they got to take home leftovers!  Thank you, Anthony Cucci, Manager at the Swordfish for setting up the wonderful breakfast.

The morning would not have been complete without the arrival by boat by the big guy, Santa Claus.  Mr. and Mrs. Claus and friends arrived and brought so many smiles.  Thank you, Santa, and Mrs. Claus for taking the time to come to our event.  Everyone attending got to take a photo with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Also, every kid went home with a huge bag of gifts.  It was a special and magical morning.  The smile on the kids’ faces tells it all.

I would personally like to thank Betsy Plante, President of the Blessing Bags Project, the Board of Directors of the Blessing Bags Project, Adam Sears, General Manager, Katrina Cox and Lily Banyas, Managers at the Swordfish, and the entire team at the Swordfish Grill and Tiki for putting together such a wonderful event.  And of course, thank you to all of the volunteers who worked so hard at the event to make it such a huge success.  The wonderful music was provided by the fabulous singer, Tanya McCormick.   And a very special thank you to Erin Dolan and Lance Plowman from “The Florida Fishing Fleet” for providing the boat for Santa’s arrival!

Merry Christmas to all!

You can view all of the photos of the event here.

Photos from Sande Caplin & Associates