Christ Church spreads Christmas cheer

Students of 13th Avenue Dream Center of Bradenton got a sweet surprise on Dec. 15.

At Christ Church, Presbyterian’s annual holiday party for its reading buddies, Santa and Mrs. Claus made a special appearance and brought presents with them. About 60 reading buddies, who are students at the dream center of United Community Centers, got a gift bag full of small toys and a gift card. Reading buddies are students between kindergarten and third grade who are matched with Christ Church members. The church members help them learn to read and serve as a mentor to the students throughout the year.

The Reading Buddies program’s main goal might be to help students learn to read, but for the center’s program director John Carnegie, it has another purpose too.

“This program, what it means, is to build dreams and change lives,” Carnegie said.

Along with the gift bags, Santa Claus brought three stacks of books to be donated to the dream center.

“The sound the children made when they saw Santa’s books, you can’t beat that,” event coordinator Beverly Sutton said.

Before Santa arrived, the students and Christ Church members held a short service in the church’s sanctuary. Students took turns reading and performing Christmas songs. At the end of the service, they sang “Happy Birthday” and blew out candles on a cake for Jesus.