DuBois -- The Penn State DuBois Student Government Association's (SGA) annual Make-A-Wish fund-raiser again featured the most popular couple in December, Santa and Mrs. Claus.
According to student organizer Ashley Duell of Coudersport, a junior human development and family Sstudies major, the 11th annual breakfast with Santa raised $1,306.80 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation's DuBois campaign, held this week. All money taken at the door was given directly to the campaign, with the SGA covering the cost of food.
During the event, area children have a chance to visit and eat breakfast with Santa. The SGA served more than 400 people this year, including 175 boys and girls, who dined on scrambled eggs and pancakes on a stick. After eating, the children could play hopscotch, have their faces painted, play pin the nose on Rudolph, and of course, tell Santa and Mrs. Claus what they would like for Christmas.
"Boys mostly asked for things such as Gameboys, Thomas the Train, board games and Yugios. Girls asked for things such as Dora the Explorer, Barbie, Bratz dolls and stuffed as well as real animals," Duell observed. Duell said in the 11 years the campus has held the breakfast, Make-A-Wish has been the benefactor for eight of those years.
SGA adviser Rebecca Pennington said the group works directly with Make-A-Wish volunteer Mary London for the event, which has grown to become a tradition with the students. The staff of CRH Catering, the contracted food-service provider for Penn State DuBois, volunteers to prepare the food. More than 20 volunteer students, staff and faculty members turn out to make the event a success, she said, including Hank and Marianne Webster of DuBois, who have played the merry couple in red for more than a decade.
"It's important because of the type of event it is -- to benefit children around the holidays. The breakfast gives them the opportunity to see Santa, and because we're working with kids, what a better opportunity than to support Make-A-Wish which benefits kids who are seriously ill," Pennington said.