One of Santa’s helpers who toured several of the city’s neighborhoods Sunday afternoon aboard a Hopkinsville Fire Department truck said the biggest thrill for him was seeing the expression on children’s faces.
“It exceeded my expectations,” said Robert Martin, who pulled on a snowy white beard and a red suit to play his part in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Hoptown.
During the workweek, Martin is the city’s finance director. But on the weekend, he can “ho, ho, ho” with the best of them — although he admitted to Hoptown Chronicle that the beard kept flying into his mouth while he shouted greetings from the cab of the fire truck.
Magically, Santa was able to run simultaneously on three fire trucks. Martin had some help from two other Santa helpers — educator Wayne Gooslby and Chad Sivills, who is a city fire marshal.
Of the three helpers, Sivills might have the most street cred with the real Santa since he runs the fire department’s annual Christmas for Kids effort. He recruited several volunteers to buy gifts for local children and is organizing the deliveries. Like Santa does.
Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tab Brockman — whose agency organized the triple-Santa tour after the Christmas parade was canceled because of the coronavirus — said Sunday he was enthused by the community’s reaction.
“I think we’ll do this every year,” Brockman said.
Martin said he hopes the city does it again.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to do something that meant so much to people,” he said.
And it wasn’t just children, he said. Street by street, they saw children and adults waiting in their yards for Santa to pass by. Each fire truck was followed by a couple of police cruisers, and officers stopped to hand out treat bags that included candy canes and holiday art activities.
“At least they go to see Santa to bring some normalcy to this year,” Martin said.
“It was neat to see the kids getting excited.”
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
