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This is Breakfast with Santa. We celebrate and host it for the kids of Cochran Elementary.
We've done this for nine years and it's my favorite time of the holidays. The University
of Louisville has been fabulous to sponsor the pancake breakfast with Santa now for a
number of years. We started out bringing kindergarten and first grade and now they let us bring
our second and third grade as well. And it is a great opportunity. Most of our kids don't
get to see a setting like this, much less come in, sit down at a formal table. The gasp
when they walk in the lobby and see the big, tall Christmas tree, it just really seems
to get their season going and gets that excitement level just one level higher. For us to be
able to bring these kids in here and see their faces is the best joy that you can ever feel.
Mr. Rothballer, who is the manager here at the University Club, also sits on my advisory
council, so he's an active community partner. He has been wonderful to connect our school
with a lot of the people here at the University of Louisville. They've supported our kids
during holiday programs, they've helped support getting books for our kids. I know that if
I have a specific need I can reach out and it helps these kids with extremely low income,
extremely at risk, and it's just great to see the caring arms that they're around and
find a way to solve problems that these kids face. Every year I tell them how much I appreciate
it and the response is always, oh no, this makes our Christmas. This whole concept stimulated
from Jim Ramsey's request for UofL employees to go out and reach out in the community and
I came up with the idea, why not host a breakfast with Santa for these kids and it's been an
event that we enjoy and the kids enjoy for the past nine years. And it just gives you
such a great feeling that it is a time of giving.