Glimpses of Batavia Lodge 682's Christmas Eve Party for Mooseheart Youngsters
Remaining On Campus for Holiday
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A professional magician dubbing himself "Magic Matt" spent time entertaining the children before Santa arrived. Here he shows the many things that can be made with his magic rings, including a ring swing.
Soon after the magic show ended, Santa arrived to hand out presents to the children in attendance. The party's 16-year-old fundraiser, Brad Duermit, helped hand out presents, including these packages for Jacob Stone.
Jonathan Serrano was pleased to get his stack of presents from Brad Duermit and Santa on Christmas Eve.
Arranda Patton-Stuart poses with Santa and Brad Duermit after receiving her presents from Kris Kringle on Christmas Eve.
As they have for the past 20 years, Mooseheart's children who are still on campus on Dec. 24 headed to Batavia, IL Lodge 682 for a Christmas Eve party.
This year, that party was made quite a bit nicer, thanks to the help of 16-year-old Batavia resident Brad Duermit, the son of parents Robert and Julie, who are both Batavia Moose members.
As part of a community service project to put on his resume for college, young Duermit sent letters to all Moose Lodges in the U.S., asking for $5 to help fund the Batavia Lodge's party. On Christmas Eve, Duermit received a check that took the overall amount of funds to more than $7,000. Not bad for a high school sophomore! And there may still be some checks forthcoming, still in the mail stream.
The party was sumptuous as always. There was plenty of food and soft drinks for anyone who was hungry or thirsty. And there were more than enough activities to keep everyone interested in anticipation of Santa's arrival. And the man in the red suit didn't disappoint the roughly 50 young party attendees.
The money left over from Duermit's appeal will be held in the Lodge's account and will be used to help pay for the Christmas Eve 2009 party for Mooseheart's children.
