For over 10 years Leaps & Bounds has hosted a Breakfast with Santa in the community.  We had taken it over from the Arnprior Brownies years ago when they were struggling to find a big enough volunteer base for such a large endeavour.  We were operating as Sunshine Preschool then, with a smaller group of staff – but those on hand were dedicated and had the backing of the Board (Arnprior and District Child Care Services).

Spin ahead to today.  While we want to support the community, but have a desire to support our own community as well.  Since the first Breakfast we held, our centre had amalgamated with our sister centre and grown enough to expand our capacity a few times!  With that in mind, and the knowledge of the growing number of Santa events in our neighbourhood (other nonprofits in need of fundraising dollars) we decided to switch things up and host an inhouse event…. Milk & Cookies with Santa.

Again, we took on this challenge, had the support of the Board again as well as staff to help with the raffle, photography, cookies, etc – and the support of many families coming out to enjoy a treat as well as a chance to get an early photo with Santa.  We had a successful night, and the feedback was positive.

Trying something new can be a bit scary, wondering what the turnout will be like, we have enough treats, will the families feel comfortable, on so on.  This picture is a good example of how we fell about the change of events from the breakfast to the evening event.  So happy it went well, that it was successful, but also a bit sad that we closed one chapter to start a new one!