Adventure Guides Invite Santa to YMCA

Santa will make a landing and greet local children between 7 to 8 p.m. on Friday at the on Mount Airy Road in Basking Ridge, courtesy of the and the YMCA's Adventures Guides.

The visit with Santa is free and open to the public.

Families who are interested in having their child receive a gift may drop a wrapped gift off at the front desk of the YMCA with their child's name clearly marked outside, said Mary McCabe, program coordinator for the elementary-school aged Adventure Guides.

Santa will arrive at the YMCA on a Basking Ridge Fire Co. firetruck at 7 p.m., she said. He then will enter the YMCA, and hand out the gifts in the multipurpose room.

Santa's visit is just one of the service and holiday projects undertaken recently by the Adventure Guides, McCabe said.

For the last 5 weekends, the Somerset Hills YMCA Adventure Guides have been standing outside local grocery stores soliciting food donations, she said. The resulting donations resulted in a collection of more than five tons of food to be dropped off at the FoodBank Network of Somerset County, McCabe said.

"For the past three years, the Adventure Guides have been a major source of food donations for the food bank," she said.

Boys and girls from the following Adventure Guides circles helped to make this holiday season a healthy one for less fortunate families in the Somerset County area include the Delaware Rapids, Trail Girls, Fireflies, S'mores, Team T-Rex, Sylvans, Wildcats, Outdoorsmen, Shooting Stars and the Tiger Lilies, she said.

She said the food bank distributes to three pantries located throughout the county, and also donates directly to families and individuals who come to their distribution center. The FoodBank Network also runs a backpack program for needy children who might otherwise go hungry over a weekend when school meals are not available. She said the food bank is seeing a large increase in families participating in both programs.

"These boys and girls also had the opportunity to witness just how generous their neighbors can be," McCabe said. She said the Somerset Hills YMCA Adventure Guides wanted to think to everyone who donated to the food drive and the grocery stores which participated, including ShopRite, A&P, Stop & Shop, and Kings.