Driving through a winter wonderland with best buddies

By Ella Paul, 2024

Published 12/21/20

On December 19th, Cheshire Best Buddies hosted another extremely successful drive-through event at Cheshire High School, with a total of 326 cars participating! Rather than a Spooktacular, this time, participants experienced a Winter Wonderland with car stations decorated by various clubs and sports teams handing out holiday treats and crafts. At the end of the loop, children were pleasantly surprised to be able to take pictures with Santa Claus and then drop off donations for the Cheshire Food Pantry or books for the newly opened Reread Books in Cheshire.

In the weeks leading up to the Winter Wonderland Drive Through, the officers and advisors of Best Buddies attended multiple meetings with administration to ensure the event could run smoothly while following COVID precautions. Best Buddies reached out to the CHS community to create stations to help with the event. “We got an overwhelming response from them and we couldn’t have done it without them,” says Josh Goldstein, CHS Best Buddies President. After that, Best Buddies spread the word to the Cheshire community through social media platforms. Josh states, “These events are great because COVID has taken so much normalcy away from us, so it is awesome to find a way to let children in our community still have a joyful experience during the holiday season!”

Despite the temperature being as low as twenty degrees, everyone was still in the holiday spirit. One very festive car, belonging to Hannah O’Dea and her family, was decorated as a reindeer with Santa in the window and handing out a creative treat: homemade reindeer food for the children to sprinkle on their yard on Christmas Eve. Hannah, a junior that has been in Best Buddies for five years, was thrilled to participate in the drive through. She says that her favorite part was “giving the treats out to the little kids,” which was clear as she walked up to each car with a huge smile and a wish for a happy holiday.

On the other side of the school, Mr. Manning, the special education teacher at CHS, was dressed up as Santa Claus, wishing all participants a Merry Christmas. Mr. Manning explained that he has been dressing up as Santa at various events for almost 30 years, and he loves it. There is a lot of hard work that goes into these events, and when asked what makes all of it worth it for him, Mr. Manning stated, “It puts me in a great mood and makes the kids happy. And the parents! Especially this year, it’s been so strange. It’s something you feel good about!”

It was refreshing to see our community come together to enjoy a safe holiday celebration given everything that has been changed this year. Have a happy and healthy holiday season!