JACKSON – A holiday tradition returned after a two year break due to the pandemic. The Senior Center opened its doors to Toyland which featured a variety of costumed characters, refreshments, free teddy bears and a visit with Kris Kringle himself.
The two-day event drew hundreds of happy children and adults for the free event that provided plenty of holiday cheer.
Olivia Farrell, a member of the Jackson Memorial National Honor Society started her day off as an elf for the event but moved on to play a character from the Disney film Frozen. She was joined by a fellow Jackson Memorial High School student, Jake Cohn, a member of the school’s Interact Club who was an elf for the occasion. Both were helping out in various capacities during the day.
“It’s in shifts,” Farrell explained. “We change jobs throughout the day so I wasn’t Elsa or Anna the whole day. At first I was an elf and working the line.”
“I started the day off as a present and then became an elf,” Jake said. “I was a box with a Christmas tree on my head and was a present under a tree over by Granny’s corner and was an ornament under the tree.”
“As a kid I came here each year but had never volunteered to be part of it until this year so it is now full circle,” Olivia added.
Sporting a festive holiday sweater with a reindeer pin was longtime volunteer Peggy Kolowicz. “I’ve been a volunteer here for this for probably for 10 to 15 years and I love it. We used to bring our grandson and our granddaughter here and now my grandson got married so that’s how long we’ve been coming.”
“It is very enjoyable and rewarding. To watch those kids walk through the door, their eyes light up,” Kolowicz added.
“There was a lot of people who came through that door that were thrilled that we were back,” she said. “They said, ‘oh I’m so glad you are back!’ We even had parents who came here as kids.”
“My granddaughter came from Texas to help out,” Kolowicz added.
Her granddaughter Allison Kolowicz, 25 said, “this is really fun I like it. This is my first time here.” She decorated trees and helped out in a variety of ways.
“Peggy is one of our many active seniors who helped us over the last two weeks with the setup. All this is done through volunteers and staff. Peggy was here almost every day to help me with pricing, staging, just helping out in any way she could,” said Kate Slisky, the director of the Township’s Senior Services program.
She said it was a struggle getting the same number of volunteers this year. “Our seniors are still leery about being around such large crowds so we had some difficulty in getting volunteers but we had enough to cover all our spots for both days. During COVID people’s lives were put on hold and we’re trying to bring the spirit back and we got a great response.”
“During COVID, we never stopped crafting or crocheting so we would give our seniors materials in a dropbox and they would pick up what they knitted or crocheted so all the outfits (for the teddy bears) were hand made by the seniors and it all accumulated during the pandemic,” Slisky said.
Holly Newhook a student of Jackson Memorial High School and a member of the Interact Club was the Snow Princess for the day joined Colin Cohn as an elf. Both were first time volunteers.
“I used to come here as a kid and I really liked it. It is fun seeing all the kids. They really enjoy this,” Holly said.
Colin wasn’t here in the past but said, “coming here now is great and its nice seeing all the kids so happy.”
Angelo Brown was running the miniature trains in another popular area of Toyland. Multiple train sets were on track in a winter setup.
Slisky explained that this year 1,500 teddy bears would be provided free to children by the Salvation Army during the course of the weekend. “We had a very large crowd early today despite the rain. Our volunteers hand crochet and knit their outfits.”
“We also have crafts for sale. This was so important to them during covid because everyone needs a reason to get up in the morning and everyone needs to feel needed,” Slisky added.
She was happy to note that the center has a community development block grant for “renovations to be done to our kitchen to make it more handicapped accessible along with putting in a reception counter that will also be handicapped accessible and we are making our interior doors handicapped accessible. These are the projects on the burner for 2023.”
“We had at least 40 volunteers, student volunteers and our adult seniors. It is great because it is interactive and intergenerational with student volunteers working side by side with seniors and it breaks some barriers. This is a great way to bring the community together and it isn’t just Jackson residents. Some of the parents are struggling a little more this year because of inflation so they were looking for a free event and we are totally free and I think our turnout was very high because of that,” Slisky added.
