CENTER – On Saturday, Dec. 14, beginning at 1 p.m. in downtown Center, the Kiwanis Club and the Town of Center hosted a Christmas Parade of Lights.

Following the parade, the celebration moved to Casa Blanca Park, where people could visit with Santa Claus. The Kiwanis Club hosted the event at the park.

Santa handed out gift bags to boys and girls at the park, and children sat on Santa’s lap and took a picture with him, while smiling and waving for their parents, grandparents and other loved ones.

There was a raffle for folks who had participated at local businesses in town and the Kiwanis Club gave out hams, and other nice items to raffle winners.

Richard Ramstetter of the Kiwanis Club spoke about the Christmas event and what it entailed.

“It’s been a nice day. We had a parade, and now we have Santa Claus here who is giving out toys and candy baskets to all the little kids who have joined us here. We have hams, and other gifts that we raffled off. People had to put their names at different merchants in town, and we collected all the tickets, and we are drawing names now,” Ramstetter said.

Ramstetter said that about 150 people had attended the event.

“We like helping our community. Wednesday, we will be giving out food baskets. The Center Key Club will be giving them out. The school decides who gets them, and we just fix the baskets for them, we put them together. Each one of the baskets is worth about $200. We also help with scholarships. We do a lot of different things for the community, that we enjoy. We like to help folks. We are always looking for new members too. We have our own hall right across from the school, and we meet every Monday night, and have a potluck. We charge dues and stuff too, but we do a lot throughout the year for everyone,” he said.

City Manager Cole Webb was at the event and said, “This is our annual Christmas event. The parade went well. The fire department was there, the EMS, and the police. The Kiwanis are an essential part of our community. They do a lot to help the kids. This is a great event and has gone very well today.”

Saguache County Commissioner Lynne Thompson was at the event and said that she enjoyed the sense of community that she was seeing.

Mayor Archie Gallegos was at the event and said he was happy to see so many members of the community in attendance.