Santa to collect toys, food in Gilberts

A 35-year tradition in Gilberts and Sleepy Hollow kicked off for this year last Friday and continues this weekend. This tradition includes Santa, his elves, teachers from a Gilberts elementary school and Rutland Dundee Fire Protection District firefighters and paramedics.

Together, they ride and walk the same path they have been laying since the 1970s to collect food, toys and clothing for needy local families. Every year in December, Santa's sleigh is hitched to a truck and pulled through residential streets.

On top of it, he waves to residents as mothers, fathers, sons and daughters run to him with armloads of food and toys some people can't afford to buy.

Call it a reverse Kriss Kringle party, but it's been an expanding ritual that families look forward to.

That ritual goes like this: First the fire truck arrives in the street. Its wailing siren announces Santa is 10 minutes behind it. Then, he and his sleigh arrive. On many streets, families are running to the street even before Santa turns the corner. Children, some of whom are so excited they forget to put on their winter coats, see him and run to the sleigh.

“When we started in the 1970s, it took one weekend to go through all the neighborhoods,” said firefighter Daniel Fleck, one of the organizers. “With all the homes that have been built in the two towns, now it takes two weekends.”

And it takes a bunch of trips to empty the loaded ambulance. Once the toys, food and clothing arrive at the fire station, paramedics and firefighters separate the items, which are then given to the American Red Cross and the local food pantry.

“We were told by the Red Cross, the food pantries really need the food,” Fleck said. “There are so many people who aren't working. Their shelves are pretty bare.”

But they won't be for long, thanks to the generosity of residents of the Countryview Highlands, Lake Tara, Pine Cone Lane, Frontenac and Little Acres neighborhoods in Sleepy Hollow, where Santa visited Dec. 3.

On Dec. 4 and 5, Santa and his helpers drove through neighborhoods east and west of Sleepy Hollow Road, and through old town Gilberts, Gilberts Towns Center and the Windmill Meadows neighborhood.

Starting at noon Saturday, Dec. 11, Santa will ride through the Timbers Glen and Timber Trails neighborhoods. The crews will finish up on Sunday starting at 3 p.m. in Indian Trails, Dunhill Estates, Gilberts Glen and Woodlawn Meadows.

For more information, call the fire protection district at (847) 426-2522.