Hollow helps Special Santa program

PALMER — Another Halloween has passed and, with it, another successful Halloween Hollow.

“It was a huge success. People were thanking us for having it because the wind was so horrible,” said Mari Jo Parks, who heads up the Mat-Su Special Santa program for which the event is a fundraiser. “Kids told us that they had a great time.”

Those winds that lashed the Valley, she said, probably drove up attendance.

“It’s amazing how it comes together, and I have to say without Palmer Junior Middle School I don’t know how we’d do it,” she said.

Kids from PJMS’s Leadership Club set up the booths, ran them and helped clean up afterward. Parks also had special thanks for students from Mat-Su Central School and Alaska Job Corps Center and for the volunteers from the Lion’s Club.

Speaking of volunteers, the Special Santa program is ramping up now. The program is a Valley stalwart that gives toys to needy kids each Christmas.

Folks who want to volunteer should shoot her an email at matsu_santa@yahoo.com.