Christmas festival moved to Warwick

A gas station’s Christmas toy drive has teamed up with a holiday festival.

Terceira’s service station has joined forces with Gina Spence Productions’ annual Christmas Community and Outreach Festival, which will move from its original home on Court Street to the Warwick gas station.

The festival will get all the toys handed in at the gas station on South Road and pass them on to children in need.

Ms Spence, who grew up in Warwick, said the parish was the best place to hold the event.

She explained: “Warwick is a very vastly populated community and there are people from all walks of life from children to seniors who live in this community.

“I think the partnership worked really well for us because now we can really develop the event around a specific parish.”

Teddy Terceira, general manager of the gas station, said the partnership was a good chance to give back to the community.

He added: “It’s our first run, but I hope next year I’ll be able to do this again with Gina and we can make it bigger and better.”

The toy drive is just one of the charitable activities carried out by Ms Spence’s organisation over the festive period.

Children will also get a “healthy food hamper” to help provide them with nutritious food after the traditional holiday fare.

Families and seniors will also get Christmas food hampers and pharmacy gift cards will be available for seniors registered for financial assistance.

Ms Spence said: “We want to make sure we help as many people as possible.

“Everything in the Christmas hampers is prepackaged. It comes with instructions on how to cook each meal and every aspect of it is made to empower the parent and the family.”

Ms Spence added families receiving donations should bring identification in order to get their hampers.

The event will be open to the public and offer food, entertainment, fitness demonstrations, and health checks.

Gospel duo Last Call and entrants to the Bermuda Teen Idol competition will also perform.

A “Kiddie Land” area will also be available for children, with a face-painting station, bouncy castles, and a visit from Santa. Karate demonstrations will also be on show.

Ms Spence said that the event will be held under a tent, but will be moved indoors if the weather is bad.

She added: “Everything there is free and we do it specifically because we try to encourage people to bring their whole family.

“A lot of the time for people it’s about the cost, so now you can take your family to a free event, eat free food, have free access to activities and celebrate the holidays.”

The event will be held on Saturday from 11am to 4pm.

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