Dear Friends,
Almost exactly 16-years-ago I sat at my kitchen table and began calling my musician friends
with this idea I had. Remarkably, all of them said ”yes;” and, aided by some other good friends, Holiday Express was born.
As you read this, we are probably in the midst of our Holiday Express season – traveling on a bus somewhere, loading a truck, carry boxes, painting faces and singing “Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas” at least 100 hundred times.
These are incredibly stressful economic times, but I am sure our clients don’t know what our problems are. They are just waiting for Santa.
We have been fortunate to have reached thousands of individuals at so many worthy organizations over the years and I can’t think of any possible reason to stop now.
We’ve always needed your help but now it is more important than ever. Please do what you can.
With sincere thanks,
VOLUNTEER PAUL HUEGEL'S APPEAL
For those who think the holiday season starts too soon when the shopping malls have their Christmas displays up before Halloween, how would you like to spend your summer watching “Fred Claus?”
Well, that was what my 11-year-old son and I watched repeatedly this summer. You see, my son is autistic and loves watching DVDs… usually the same one over and over and over again for weeks. As we get closer to the Holiday Express visit to the Children’s Center of Monmouth County, a school for children with multiple disabilities, it will be “The Grinch” that we watch… over and over again… because he will be anxiously waiting for his annual meeting with that famous green character.
Like many of the people that we will visit this year, my son’s only holiday party invitation will come from Holiday Express. Unfortunately, most children with disabilities don’t get party invitations. Nor do the adult orphans that Holiday Express will visit in developmental centers, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, AIDS facilities, etc. I often say that Christmas and Hanukah are just dates on a calendar for most of these people. Their holiday will be on the day that the Holiday Express “tour bus” pulls up and for several hours, music, dancing, food and gifts will allow the joy and magic of the season to fill their lives, if just for those few hours.
If you haven’t seen the movie “Fred Claus” part of the plot centers around Santa not being able to deliver presents on Christmas Eve, so someone needs to step into that very important role.
In the movie, it was unimaginable that Santa wouldn’t arrive on Christmas Eve. It’s equally unimaginable that Holiday Express wouldn’t be able to deliver the magic of the holiday season to the more than 15,000 people who they visit each year. For most of these people, the holiday season doesn’t begin until Holiday Express arrives.
