Tis the Season for “We Believe in Estes Park”
Your Newcomers “We Believe in Estes Park” planning team and other town organizations have been hard at work to come up with COVID-safe activities this holiday season. In the past, members and alumni have generously given their time to support We Believe and the many events that happen around town during the holiday season. While the number of events is reduced this year, the need for volunteers is as great as ever. All the details can be found here.
For those who may be new to town and Newcomers, “We Believe in Estes Park” is a community outreach project of the Estes Park Newcomers Club. Since 2018, the Club has partnered with the Town of Estes Park to celebrate the holiday spirit, while supporting several local non-profit organizations that support our mountain community.
Due to COVID-19, the Town’s holiday plans have been altered to make sure the holiday spirit is kept alive while keeping our community safe. First, the Town will be hosting a stationary “Catch the Glow” parade at the Fairgrounds. The stationary parade will allow visitors to drive through the Fairgrounds to see the many wonderful floats which normally progress down Elkhorn Avenue the day after Thanksgiving. Upon entering the east side of the Fairgrounds, visitors will be greeted by Santa from his holiday cabin during the six evenings that the parade is open.
Next, in lieu of visiting with Santa at the We Believe Inn, we will be collaborating with Mary Jane’s to host life-size standup cut-outs of Santa, Mrs. Claus, and a holiday reindeer for locals and visitors to take safe “selfie” photos for the holidays. We are also still in discussions with the American Legion about Santa’s presence at the annual “Tiny Tots with Santa” event.
Additionally, right after Thanksgiving we will host North Pole direct delivery mailboxes around town where children can drop off letters to Santa. All letters put in the North Pole mailboxes by December 20th will receive a reply from Santa, along with autographed photos from Santa, Mrs. Claus, and elves.
Finally, with the help of past president Bob Fulton, we are creating a series of Santa, Mrs. Claus, and elf videos that the Town and other groups in Estes Park can post and invite families to enjoy. The details and scrips of each video are being developed, and we hope to post the first one on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We are very excited that Cowboy Brad is going to join us in one of the videos!
In order to make all of this happen and bring the holiday spirit to the children in our amazing town, we need some equally amazing volunteers for the following activities:
- Happy, joyful elves to be actors in the video productions - November 14th and 15th.
- Elves to collect mail and write personalized return letters to the children - November 28th through December 20th.
- Male Newcomers to make “Santa” phone calls to local children – dates TBD.
We hope you will consider volunteering your time for some of these activities and helping our community find joy at the end of a challenging year for so many. If you are interested in any of these opportunities to support our town, you can sign up here. If you have questions, please email the We Believe team at webelieve@estesparknewcomers.org