Christmas Festival Thank You

Another amazing year has come to a close! As we reflect back on 2016, on behalf of Moorpark Pantry Plus/Catholic Charities and the hundreds of families we serve, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the organizations and individuals who helped us create a joyous Christmas Festival for families and children in Moorpark. It was wonderful to see everyone come together again to make this Christmas season special for struggling families in our neighborhood. This year’s festival provided toys to 625 children from ages 0 to 13, representing 308 families in Moorpark. We are so grateful for all the support we received not only in toy donations, but in the many volunteer hours devoted to planning, coordination, set-up, and creation of a magical day filled with Santa, crafts, Christmas carols, and love. Moorpark is truly a generous community.

We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their contributions.

The Boys and Girls Club and its director, Scott Mosher, who gave us the use of their facility.

Pentair Aquatic Systems for their amazingly generous donations of one hundred $150 gift cards.

Moorpark Unified School District, Moorpark schools, the California Highway Patrol, and Toys for Tots for their fabulous, generous toy donations.

Dave Chapman, teacher and sponsor of the ACT Service Club from Moorpark High School, who recruited and helped organize the many hard working Moorpark High School students who set up, organized the toy stations, provided assistance to families getting toys to the car, and cleaned up. Will Donley and Larry Jones, former teachers and sponsors of the ACT Club, came out of retirement to help us also!

Our community churches, Holy Cross, Cornerstone Community Church, the Fountain Foursquare Church, Moorpark Presbyterian Church, The Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints, and Roam'n Relics Car Club who ran toy drives and staffed the toy stations.

The National Charity League/Vista Robles Chapter mother and daughter team volunteers who donated gift wrapping supplies and helped wrap the gifts for the festival.

Buddy Minor for his excellent portrayal of Santa Claus, and Greg Cosimati who acted as Santa’s Elf.

Moorpark GS Troop #60707, under the guidance of Wendy Cuenco helped coordinate the Moorpark Girl Scout community-wide project that created more than 700 Christmas Stockings to give out to the children at the Festival.

Thank you to Moorpark Girl Scout Troops 60083, 60136, 60428, 60750, 60409 and their leaders - Lisa Sophos, Carrie Erbe, Judy Violette, Sue Hyrchyk and Denise Horton - who provided creative activities for the children at our Festival.

Greg Horton who served as the official photographer for Santa’s Village. And the Moorpark/ Simi Valley Scholarship 2016 Titleholder, Miss Moorpark Veronica Sichmiller for their assistance with the photo station.

Moorpark High School Band Boosters and Virginia Stetz for the Christmas Tree donations.

Andres Torres, Veronica Torres, and Debbie Woerner who set up the decorations, along with the numerous Moorpark Pantry Volunteers who assisted each family through the Festival centers.

We know that this list is by no means all inclusive because hundreds of volunteers came out to help with this event. While we don’t have the space to mention everyone by name, we are so grateful for everyone’s contributions. Once again Moorpark has shown itself to be a community that truly believes that all our children should experience the joy and wonder of the season. Each toy given out this year was a physical representation of the generosity of this town and the true meaning of Christmas. Thank you all so very much. We look forward to working with you again next year!

Sincerely,

Patricia Calderon