What a success the Christmas Santa zoom meetings for Wigan’s tiny tots has been!! Wigan Rotary Club are delighted. The bookings to meet Father Christmas rolled in throughout December 2020 and proved the Club was on the right track. We realized that a different format was necessary this year and under the difficult circumstances caused by the Covid Virus the club now knows this alternative was just what was needed for everyone one who joined in. We just looked at the children’s faces and knew it was a winner.

Wigan Rotary President Rosemary Charles said ‘ I would like to thank all the parents, grandparents, children and friends who met Santa via Zoom each day. Thanks too for the terrific generosity supporting us in this new venture. It will enable Wigan Rotary Club to continue support for local, national and international charities to which we are committed. The comments we received are an amazing testament to the organization put in to bring it off”. Rosemary continued ‘You only have to read the comments we received after the zoom meetings which are heartwarming”.

“My twin daughters had one of the "Meet Santa" zoom calls today, Santa was excellent, he was really patient with the girls, who loved it and are super excited to have actually have seen Santa during the pandemic. Santa asked lots of questions about the presents they wanted. It really was well done. Big ‘Thumbs up’ to Wigan Rotary Club.” A second one said “My little girl Hollie had a call with Santa and it was truly amazing! She's such a chatterbox but Santa listened to her and it was really lovely to see her huge smiles”.

A third added “Thank you all so much!!! it was lovely. Such a good idea”. The fourth said “My children had a zoom call with Santa, fantastic idea, would definitely recommend as my children haven't stopped talking about it for hours afterwards! Thank you Wigan Rotary”. A final comment “My son had a zoom call with Santa and I have to say it was fantastic. He loved it, in fact we all did!! What a fantastic idea to keep the magic alive for our little one's during this awful pandemic. I’d say this is much better than meeting him in real life as there was no shyness and lots of chatting. Just brilliant Wigan Rotary Club, fantastic work. Looking forward to more future events”.

The Club feel these new initiatives show wonderful examples of community engagement and we send good wishes for the New Year to everyone who participated in the fun provided by their 2020 innovative alternatives.