Page 32 - January 2016

Lodge 7
Gallery
Snapshots from events featuring members, family and friends
A visit from Saint Nick
The Chicago Lodge 7 FOP Hall became a little bit brighter and a whole lot cheerier when 150 officers and their families packed the room on Dec. 5 in anticipation of spending a luncheon with Santa Claus.
For the past 20 years, FOP Family Auxiliary President Angie Haynes has setup Lunch with Santa for members and families to celebrate the holiday with one another.
“It’s hard to get off on the holidays,” acknowledged Haynes. “It’s important to let the families know that they are not in this alone.”
Before Saint Nick’s sleigh landed on the rooftop, families posed for photos with the Chicago Police Department’s Mounted and K-9 units.
“The children absolutely love the dogs and the horses to take pic- tures with,” surmised Haynes. “It’s one of their favorite parts of the day.”
At the lunch, members painted reindeer and candy canes on the children’s faces before collecting goodie bags filled with gifts like ornaments to adorn their Christmas trees at home.
The Illinois State Auxiliary contributes to the event, which allows the Family Auxiliary to purchase presents from Toys “R” Us to be raf- fled off to all children on Santa’s nice list.
Chicago Police Officer Arturo Andonaegui led a sing-along of Christmas carols to get everyone in the holiday spirit, while children snacked on cookies, participated in drawing contests and built gin- gerbread houses before taking pictures with the man of the hour, Santa.
“We wanted to show our appreciation to the officers and their families in all these hard times that (they) are going through,” rec- ognized Haynes.
32 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2016