Santas Claus made 300 children very happy on Tuesday by making an early start to his Christmas delivery run for children with a sickness, injury or disability.
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Santa embarked on a very special tour of Wollongong and Shellharbour with the team from KidzWish.
They first visited Para Meadows School and Peterborough School to distribute toys to children who were unable to attend this year's KidzWish Christmas Party at Symbio Wildlife Park.
Santa then dropped off toys to Wollongong Hospital's Children's Ward. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 social restrictions he was unable to go into the ward to hand the presents out personally. But he wanted to make sure all the children in hospital this Christmas did not miss out.
KidzWish's Renee Hawira said the children's charity was dedicated to bringing love and laughter to children. She said that was more important than ever in 2020 after such a tough year for local families in the region.
"It was awesome to spread so much Christmas cheer. It is one of our favourite days of the year at KidzWish. And the kids really loved it."
The tour started at Para Meadows where Santa had some ideal toys for all the children including those with high needs.
"We had some great donations from Good360, local Lego enthusiasts group GongLUG, Ray White Gerringong and Lake Illawarra Police. GongLUG gave us over $5000 worth of Lego and Good360 gave us 250 boxes of Lego," Ms Hawira said.
Para Meadows school principal Gillian Hendry said Santa's visit was a surprise and looks on the children's faces said it all when he arrived unannounced.
"We hadn't let on and when he walked through the door there was a lot of excitement," she said.
"A lot of the children ran up to give him a hug. They don't take the opportunity to do that in shopping centres. Because of their disabilities they don't want to take his time and cause other people to wait. Having Santa come to us in an environment where they are secure and happy they were relaxed and felt confident to go up to him and say hello."
Ms Hendry said some of the children don't speak but their smiles were the universal language that said it all on Tuesday because they had the opportunity to do something they have been unable to do before. Especially in 2020 with so many restrictions on contact until now.
"It was definitely a very nice end to a very different year. We are forever grateful to KidzWish for coming out and helping the kids have an enjoyable end to the year."
After Para Meadows the tour headed to Peterborough School where almost 200 children received gifts from Santa as he visited all the classrooms.
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