Medina Memorial hosts first visit with Santa at hospital since Covid

Photos by Ginny Kropf: (Left) Chris Walczak, nurse’s aide in the surgery department, gets a hug from the Grinch during Medina Memorial Hospital’s afternoon with Santa on Wednesday. (Right) Destiny Miller, a certified nursing assistant at Medina Memorial Hospital, helps Aric and Addie Fox scoop up bags of reindeer food to take home and scatter on their lawn on Christmas Eve.

MEDINA – Orleans Community Health on Wednesday afternoon hosted its first holiday event with Santa and Mrs. Claus since Covid hit in 2020.

Children were informed of the event through notes sent to their schools. For many years, the event took place in the morning on a weekend and included breakfast, as well as crafts and a visit with Santa.

This year, according to Kristin Grose, human resources manager, the event featured cookies with Santa, crafts, cookie decorating and making reindeer food. The reindeer food consisted of oatmeal and cereals which children could scoop into plastic bags to take home and scatter on their lawns for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve.

Isabella Gray, daughter of Medina Memorial Hospital’s director of nursing Kim Gray, greets children who attended an afternoon with Santa and Mrs. Claus on Wednesday. Here, Isabella gives a bag of goodies to Emma-Lee Noone, 6, whose grandmother Bobbi Huwyler brought her to see Santa.

Bobbi Huwyler brought her granddaughter, Emma-Lee Noone, 6, who, like all the children, got a bag of goodies to take home, including candy canes. Santa and Mrs. Claus sat in the hospital lobby, where children could get their picture taken and share what they wanted for Christmas.

Isabella Gray, 17, volunteered to help greet children to satisfy her community service hours for school.

“My mom brought me here to this event when I was 3,” she said.

She may be nearly grown up now, but 17-year-old Isabella Gray still likes to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Isabella remembers when her mother brought her to the hospital to see Santa when she was 3 years old.

Isabella’s mom, Kim Gray, is director of nursing at the hospital.

Valerie Kujawa of Medina brought her son Micah, 6, and their cousins Aric, 8, and Addie Fox, 6.  She said she had previously brought Micah to the event when he was 3 and it included breakfast with Santa.

Not only do the children get to interact with Santa, but hospital staff say it is a good way to show children that hospital’s aren’t a scary place, in case they ever have to come there for treatment.

From left, Aric Fox, 8, Micah Kujawa, 6, and Addie Fox, 6, all of Medina, make Christmas ornaments at a Santa event Wednesday afternoon at Medina Memorial.