Visiting Mr. Claus For A Good Cause
Santa (aka banker Tom Dods) is joined by Delightful Dolly the clown (Bonnie Parsons) and event-co-chair Marie Weite for Breakfast With Santa
By Alice Keesing
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Breakfast with Santa is one way the group helps ease the way - just a little - for those children whose lives have been torn apart by abuse. With the help of sponsors such as Schuler Homes, Servco and First Insurance, the organization is able to invite children from shelters and aid agencies to join in the festivities.
“The whole thing for me is to just make one life a little bit more fun for Christmas,” says Bonnie Parsons, who has been on the PCAH board for longer than she can remember. “I’ve been there when kids say that they probably won’t get a whole lot for Christmas and you can really feel the pain. We just want them to have fun. This is a day when they don’t have to worry if there’s going to be food on the table.”
The non-profit has other fundraisers during the year, but Breakfast with Santa has always been Parsons’ favorite. So much so that she went to clown school so she could clown at the event. In her “regular” life, Parsons manages her Chinatown boutique, Bonnie’s Closet, but she admits to being a bit of a clown at heart, and she often puts on her clown’s face and costume for Clowns of Aloha.
At Breakfast with Santa she is Bonnie Parsons for the morning before reappearing as Delightful Dolly in the afternoon when she paints kids faces and puts on a puppet show with music.
The kids and their parents also get to enjoy a breakfast or lunch, games and crafts, magicians and great entertainment. And along with Santa, they can get up close with a large cast of costume characters including Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Mickey Mouse, Elmo, Barney, Bugs Bunny and Tweety.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s Mickey Mouse or Barney, the kids just love the costume characters,” Weite says. She remembers one year the volunteer inside the bright purple Barney suit told her that he’d been having trouble walking around in his costume, only to be told that it was because he had a 1-year-old wrapped tightly around his leg.
Weite has been involved with the fundraiser since it began 21 years ago, and it’s with something of a groan that she recalls the first breakfast the non-profit organized.
“All the board members, we sold tickets, we cooked, we served - we were exhausted at the end of the day and we made a little over $1,000,” she says with a laugh. “It would have been easier just to donate the money.”
But they kept on it. Now the fundraiser has grown to two days, and around 2,000 people turn out for the breakfast and lunch.
“We’ve got it down to a science now,” Weite says. “It’s festive and it’s chaotic and we have a lot of fun.”
So in the words of Santa Dods, “Ho, ho, ho. Have a merry Christmas.”
At the end of the holiday season, Dods will bring that razor out of retirement to the relief of his wife and boss. Then it’s just another six months until he and his fellow volunteers start getting ready to do it all over again.
Prevent Child Abuse Hawaii’s 21st annual Breakfast with Santa fundraiser will be held Dec. 8 and 9 at the Japanese Cultural Center’s Manoa Grand Ballroom. Two seatings are offered each day. Breakfast takes place from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and lunch is from noon to 2 p.m.
A donation of $20 per person includes a served meal, photo with Santa and all entertainment and activities. Children under 2 years old are free.
For more information on tickets, reservations or sponsorship, call 440-4613. All seats are assigned on tables of 10. Seating is limited. All tickets are non-refundable.
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