This is a story about a quick thinking waitress who saw a family come into a restaurant where she worked on New Years day. Jan 01, 2021

The boy had signs of possible abuse and the parents declined to order anything to feed the young boy when she waited on them.

Police officials were called by the waitress and the stepfather and mother were arrested on several counts of child abuse.

A story emerged from Caolina Cardona of News Channel 6 in Orlando detailing how the waitress signaled to the boy to ask if he needed help.  The story also told of the step father beating the boy and handcuffing him to a furniture dolly while he also tied his feet to the dolly and told him to free himself.  The step father told the young boy he was doing this because Santa Claus told him he should be punished.

As the story broke and updates developed, Fl Dept of Children & Family Services stepped in and removed the boy & girl from the home to review their health and well being.

I was so touched that I reached out to a dear friend who I have done Santa appearances with in Orange County Florida. I wanted to speak to the boy and let him know Santa loved him very much.

I reached out to a close friend  Pete Clarke. I have seen Pete in several Santa appearances over the years.                 In turn,  Pete Clarke reached out to a friend whom he knew well that worked with DCF and abused kids.  At the bottom is a special picture of us where he authenticated my Santa ID.

Pete  gave me a referral & number for a special lady named Nicola Bailey. She does so much for the families and kids in conjunction with FL DCFS at The Devereux Family Counseling Center. He said she was expecting my call.

As the days turned into weeks, we set up a surprise visit for the young boy & girl at The Devereux Family Counseling Center Feb 01, 2021 Monday night. YEP . They were about to meet Santa Claus in person.

I spent the next couple of weeks preparing special awards and gifts to present to:

Nicola Bailey and her team of elves along with DCFS agents, OPD officers were about to make a surprise Santa visit happen for the two kids.  Guest of honor would be waitress, Flavaine Carvalho from Mrs Potato Cafe,

Enclosed are a few of the awards and gifts I made up as well as a behind the scenes of the event .

Feb 01, 2021 @ 7:00 pm, Santa pulled up to the The Devereux Family Counseling Center on Westgate  dr in Orlando to meet the boy & girl as well as their special team of guardian angels, elves and honorary Santas who looked to give back and help these two heal.

The faces on these to young kids came alive. I could see the special glow of love, believing and appreciation as I looked into their eyes.

Due to Fl law being protective of the name of minors, I knew I had to find a way to put their names in my awards. I made the young boy an Honorary Santa. As an honorary Santa / helper, his first duty would be to help me fill out the names of he and his sister on the awards.  He & his sister were jumping for joy over this. I even had an honorary Santa hat for him and an elf hat for her

Not only did Santa have awards & gifts for the kids, he had a special Santa spirit award for the waitress, Falvaine Carvalho & Nicola Bailey.

After the appearance, I was surprised to receive a special award by text & thank you from these two ladies for the Santa appearance and gifts.

A magic key to the North Pole was also given  to Nicola Bailey along with one million Christmas wishes. She and her team of elves work so hard that I wanted to make sure they never ran  short of fulfilling the wishes of others.

The Santa sleigh is equipped with LED lights on the reindeer horns, Christmas tree & candy canes.  The remote control has a on-off, flash mode and fade mode.  I waived good by and the sleigh waived by by going into the fade mode as I left. The squeals of joy that came from the young lad & sister and some of the crowd laughter were a special treasure as I departed.

What a night.

Now that this over, I needed to recharge. My magic toy bag became empty due to the distribution of the awards,  I had to stop for a late dinner and refill my toy bag with the the magic light of Christmas.   I hope you enjoyed the story here of how one person in the right place at the right time can help to change things by forming a special team.