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| A look at the fire station as seen from across the street. |
This event has been going on since before cityhood, and is now a joint venture between the Wildomar Rotary Club and the City of Wildomar.
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| Miguel Casillas, Jaimie Benoit and Martin Haeberle cooking up some sausage and eggs. |
Volunteers started arriving before the Sun came up (6:00am) to assemble the cooking area in the back part of Fire Station 61, and to set up the tables and chairs in the dining area (usually where the fire engines are parked inside).
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| An action shot of children having their pictures taken with Santa Claus. |
Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes (gluten free upon request), tortillas and a beverage (coffee, milk or juice).
The number of paid breakfasts were at the 375 mark, up by about 100 over last year.
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| Many precious moments were had by local families. |
You can curse Mark Zuckerberg all you want to, but people not using Facebook in the 21st century are a lot like those that refused to get a phone 100 years ago. It's how people communicate today.
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| The ornament painting booth was a popular activity. |
Local girl scout Marissa Hill had a table for Christmas ornament painting. It was a fundraiser in her quest for a Gold Award project (the Girl Scout version of an Eagle Scout project). I believe she is looking to put in a drinking fountain at the dog park —for both humans and canines.
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Santa getting some assistance from two of the Wildomar Queens as he dips a cookie into some Dejong's milk.
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After the event I caught up with 2016 Wildomar Mayor Bridgette Moore to get her thoughts on the morning.
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| Bridgette Moore |
We had a great community event today.
Served almost 400 breakfasts. We had WRCOG here doing a lights exchange. We had RTA on hand to get information for their first and last mile study, and to promote their ¢25 student fee [during the Christmas holidays] coming up.
We also had a girl scout raising funds for her gold award. We had boy scouts raising funds for their programs, and all around it was just a really good day here in Wildomar.
Served almost 400 breakfasts. We had WRCOG here doing a lights exchange. We had RTA on hand to get information for their first and last mile study, and to promote their ¢25 student fee [during the Christmas holidays] coming up.
We also had a girl scout raising funds for her gold award. We had boy scouts raising funds for their programs, and all around it was just a really good day here in Wildomar.
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| It took many volunteers to make today's event go so smoothly. About half are missing from the photo above. |
Today was somewhat of a first for me.
In the three plus years I've been writing Wildomar Rap (fourth Breakfast with Santa), this is the first event I've seen all five city council members at the same community event... that counts functions like State of the City too.
That's because the usual missing fifth Beatle only has about 48 hours left in his term, and why ruin a perfect record at the 11th hour?
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| Members of the Wildomar City Council, Dustin Nigg, Ben Benoit, Bridgette Moore, Marsha Swanson and Tim Walker. |
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On that topic, Monday December 12th will be a special city council meeting. The agenda is brief and is just to have a swearing in of new councilmember Dustin Nigg, Bridgette Moore and a send off for outgoing councilmember Bob Cashman.
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“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
― Bob Hope, 1903-2003
Wildomar Rap loved flipping flapjacks alongside Stewart Moore and Paul Bakeman. I dare say we are the new A team.
― Bob Hope, 1903-2003
Wildomar Rap loved flipping flapjacks alongside Stewart Moore and Paul Bakeman. I dare say we are the new A team.
Big question in all of this is "where did the money go". Last years event brought in ?. The Measure Z Oversight Committee year end audit shows the city budgeted $4,000 but shows no revenue generated, a check was written to the Rotary Club in the amount of $1,142.08, so revenue was generated. Funny thing is the current mayor stated last years money would go towards emergency radios and $535.75 of it did, what happened to the rest of the money.
ReplyDeleteThis is starting to smell like "Breakfast with Santa 2012".
I don't know how any of the monies are allocated. I don't know where any proceeds are supposed to end up. That said, my guess would be towards the few park events the city puts on per year (movies, the egg hunt, trunk or treat, concerts and all the ancillary costs associated with hosting such things).
DeleteAs for the past BWS you brought up. There was nothing to "smell" in the 2012 event; assertions from angry, former, discredited bloggers notwithstanding.
Those other events are funded out of Measure Z with some sponsorship. The only city event to generate any money to be shared has been the Breakfast with Santa which the Oversight Committee is tasked ? with the accounting (it has its own line in the Measure Z Budget 255-3556 Breakfast with Santa). This years event had somewhere around 15 sponsors which leaves a large amount of money to be accounted for.
DeleteYou can bury your head in the sand over the 2012 event but the fact remains this city has not had a full time Community Services Director since.
The vacancy in that post has as much to do with Breakfast With Santa as does the Sun rising because the cock crows in the morn.
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