Holiday with a Hero culminates at Wal-Mart in North Carson City

Ten weeks after the 2016 campaign began, Holiday with a Hero culminated Wednesday morning in the Wal-Mart parking lot off Retail Drive in North Carson City.

Hundreds of homeless children and their families braved the wet conditions for a chance to see Santa Claus arrive by fire engine and to go shopping with their community hero.

Low visibility and thick cloud cover canceled Santa's arrival by Care Flight Wednesday morning, so the jolly elf hitched a ride on board a Carson City Fire Department engine instead.

"We called an audible," a firefighter said Wednesday morning prior to Kris Kringle's arrival.

Students grades kindergarten through fifth in the Carson City School District's McKinney-Vento Students in Transition program, which assists homeless children in the community, are the beneficiaries of this year's Holiday with the Hero project. Homeless children are those living without permanent housing, including temporary shelters and motel rooms.

More than 200 needy students are paired with a community hero -- police, fire, military, school district or other public official -- who sponsors them during the fundraising drive.

Last year, nearly 240 students in the district's McKinney-Vento program, funded by the federal McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth Assistance Act, were served by the local Holiday with a Hero project.

Carson City Sheriff's Sergeant Daniel Gonzalez estimated around that many would be served this year, too. About six bus-loads of children arrived at Wal-Mart Wednesday morning to take part in the Holiday with a Hero shopping spree.

During the fundraising campaign, donations are collected from companies, organizations, agencies and individuals throughout Carson City to purchase $100 Wal-Mart gift cards for each of the children served by the program.

Sgt. Gonzales said the campaign met its goal to raise $25,000 this year for the area's homeless children.

“Without this program, their needs wouldn’t be met. Without this program, they wouldn’t have gifts,” he said. “For a lot of these children, this is the only Christmas they are going to get.”

On Wednesday, those children and their families met up with their heroes to go shopping with those gift cards, buying everything from clothing to hygiene products, school supplies and toys with the funds.

Holiday with a Hero, now in its 12th year, is hosted locally by the Carson City School District, Carson City Sheriff's Office and the Carson City Fire Department.

Other agencies involved in this year’s fundraising effort include the Carson City courts, Nevada Highway Patrol, Nevada Parole and Probation, Department of Corrections, Department of Forestry, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the East Fork Fire Protection District.

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