Santa Claus was greeted with the pulsating rhythms of the Hurban Johnson steelband when he showed up at the 13th annual Advocate for Etobicoke Youth’s (AFEY’s) annual Children’s Christmas party at the Woodbine Banquet Hall in Etobicoke on Saturday evening.
Six hundred children from the north Etobicoke area received gifts from the jolly fellow in the red suit and along with their parents, the children were treated to a delicious meal.
Then, on leaving, each child was presented with ” a bag filled with goodies.”
Toronto lawyer Dhaman Kissoon, co-founder of AFEY, said this year’s party was ” the largest we have held since the organization was launched.”
About 1,000 people were present, he noted.
“We are thankful that we can give back to the community,” he added.
Kissoon also thanked the Woobine Banquet hall for hosting the event.
We had 600 kids from the north Etobicoke area most of the kids with the air with a parent or Guardian so we had about a thousand people overall and this person that was there it was held at Woodbine Banquet Hall each person enjoy the delicious meal created by the banquet hall we had steel band music provided by Hobert Johnson Who provided the music Santa Claus arrival
each child received a wrapped toy based on age and sex starting from Age 3 to age 12 then when they were leaving each child was give him a bag filled with goodies for them to take home to their families
so to tell you a little bit more about your organization the organization is call Advocate for Etobicoke youth
the short form is AFEY the organization was started in 2004 Kissoon has been the co-chair of the organisation since that time the other co-chair is superintendent Ronald Taverner from the Toronto police services from 23 division when run moved to 23 division that’s when we started this organization because we both wanted to make a difference in the community and give back to the people both run and I are founders of this organization right now finds himself in charge of 23, 31 and 12 division under the new chief his role has expanded and Ron has now been on the job for 50 years he’s over 70 years of age
Keystone will say that this year’s event was the largest event who we are thankful that we will give them the opportunity to give back to the people of Etobicoke.
the entire Hall that can hold 1500 people by the way was donated by Woodbine Banquet Hall for the purpose of the children’s Christmas event