Santa Claus made an appearance in Bienfait on Dec. 13, spending the day posing for photos with local residents and skating with young people.
The Bienfait Fire Department brought St. Nicholas to town. Daniyale Lalonde, who is one of the town’s firefighters, said they toured the town with Santa riding in a fire truck.
“There were a lot of kids out in Bienfait that were really excited to see Santa Claus, and that’s probably the biggest highlight of all,” said Lalonde.
If there were kids waiting for them in front of a house, then Santa and the firefighters stopped and posed for a socially distanced photo. The kids also received some hot chocolate packets, candy and candy canes.
Lalonde believes they likely visited 40 or 50 kids during the day.
“One corner we came around and the kids were already outside waiting for us, and we could see them jumping up and down, with excitement, waiting for us to get there,” said Lalonde.
Santa loved the ride on the fire truck, she said.
A Skate with Santa followed at the Bienfait Memorial Arena. Santa Claus joined the local youths for some fun on the ice.
“Santa told me that it went over really well. He played some hockey with the kids, and he had a good time,” said Lalonde.
About 20 kids were on the ice with him for each hour that it ran, which was the maximum number they could have.
Lalonde was working in the kitchen, because the rink board was having an appetizer night. Due to the current restrictions, the Bienfait rink’s kitchen isn’t running like it normally does, so they thought Dec. 13 would be a good night to have a fundraiser with take-out meals that allowed people to have rink food at home.
The fire department believes it was important to have an event like Santa’s day in Bienfait for the community.
“For the kids to be able to see Santa, and to get the pictures with him, I think the pictures for a lot of families were important because they don’t have the opportunity to do that.”
And as part of the photos and the skate, the fire department also collected food and cash donations for the Estevan Salvation Army’s food bank. They didn’t collect a lot of cash donations, but she had a vehicle filled with food that she was looking forward to delivering.
