Santa run brings holiday cheer across North East for fourth year

MILLERTON — On Saturday, Dec. 14, the Millerton Fire Company spread holiday cheer with its fourth annual Santa Run.

The run, which included Highland Drive, Sharon Road, Route 22 and more featured the Fire Department who escorted Santa to help drop off gifts to about 80 children living in the Village of Millerton or the Town of North East.

“The goal of the Santa Run now is to keep the holiday spirit within our town and village [and] with all of the children that live within the town and village. We like to reach out as the fire department to our townspeople and village taxpayers, to give something back,” Kelly Rogers, a fire department member, said, “They donate to us all year long, so we like to give back to the community as well. So giving the kids a gift from Santa is just magical.”

The concept of the Santa Run began as a result of the pandemic. “We started it because of COVID,” said Rogers. “We used to gather back after the Parade of Lights on Black Friday night. We would gather back at the firehouse, all of the restaurants in town would donate food to us, and then we would all have food with Santa, and the kids could wait in line and see Santa,” Rogers said, “But due to COVID, we had to discontinue that.”

While the Santa Run is made in mid-December, it actually begins at the end of October. On Halloween night, young people who live in the community who trick or treat at the firehouse are given a letter to fill out and return to the Santa Mailbox. The mailbox sits outside the fire department’s building starting Nov. 1, waiting to receive as many letters from children as possible. In the letter, each child is supposed to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.

“All the volunteers come together and drive all of the fire trucks in a parade, and we bring Santa to all the addresses that we have of the kids that wrote letters,” said Rogers, “We bring Santa to all their houses. They get to get a picture with Santa, and Santa gives them a gift.”

The Santa Run began at 10:00 in the morning and ran until 3:30 p.m., ensuring each child who turned in a letter received their gift from Santa.