Champion of children

A HERO FOR KIDS

Santa wasn’t the only hero on hand at the recent “A Hero for Kids” event at Hopkins Park in St. Cloud.

Comic book superheroes and even a villain teamed up with real-life first responders from the police and fire departments, the city of St. Cloud, local merchants, nonprofi t organizations, and volunteers to provide a fun-filled holiday experience replete with a hot buffet breakfast, gifts, music, and games for local families in need. John Kalish (aka “Batman” and founder, president and CEO of A Hero for Kids) talked about how the event has grown since last year.

“Last year we were able to help 55 families. This year it’s more than 225 families, which is just so heartwarming. Along with our community partners, we collected more than 1200 toys to distribute to these children,” he said.

A Hero for Kids is a local nonprofit that works with the school system and first responders to promote literacy among children.

Though billed as a breakfast, the event went well into the day. Fortunately, the clouds held back the rain that had been forecast, while the children ate breakfast, posed for photos with Batman and the Batmobile, Spider-Man, The Joker, Santa Claus, and a Christmas princess. They received holiday themed children’s books from first responders, played on a giant inflatable slide, listened to music, received gifts and just had a great time playing in the park and being with their families.

Many took part in making this event happen. Monica Moore, who volunteered with her husband at the event serving up coffee and hot chocolate, raved about the work Tammy Odom, of Rebound, Inc., (a new nonprofit referral service designed to help families with such things as education and employment), had done spearheading the event. When asked about what inspired her to create this event, as she busily went about getting ready to serve up the buffet breakfast, she said, “I was just sitting at home, and I was looking at the news and saw that other counties and cities had things going on in minority neighborhoods, but we didn’t. So, I just wanted to bridge the gap.”

Odom soon had many onboard to help her bring her idea to life. Erin Jenks, the St. Cloud Parks and Recreation special events manager, lauded the work Andrea Kalish of A Hero for Kids did for this event.

“Andrea worked herself ragged, identifying the families through the schools, and getting their lists. Shopping for the lists, packing for the lists. She has done an amazing job,” Jenks said.

Members of the fire department and the police department joined with “A Hero for Kids” to gather, package, and transport the many collected gifts to Hopkins Park for the event. We Dare to Care, The St. Cloud Citizen’s Foundation, Creative Printing and Thee Dog House also joined in sponsoring the event.