December 2022 Holiday Gathering

What a fabulous event! Childhood Cancer Community hosted our Holiday Gathering on December 11, 2022 with close to 250 people attending. The Rochester International Event Center provided the perfect backdrop for all the fun activities!

As the doors opened to the banquet room our families were met with beautifully decorated dining tables illuminated with softly glowing candlelight. The theme for the evening was “A Peaceful Holiday” and that is the ambiance we hoped to create. It was a time to just relax, let the staff take care of us, visit with other families, participate in fun arts and crafts, and wait for our very special guest to arrive with his eight tiny reindeer and a bag full of goodies!

Of course this evening would not be possible without the support, and donations, from the community. We have so many businesses and individuals to thank! All we had to do was ask and the gifts for our children/teens just flowed in. Each child received two beautiful gifts from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

In addition, we had 250 gorgeous “Christmas” blankets/quilts donated. Every person in attendance got to pick the quilt they wanted to wrap up in on Christmas morning! And finally, each family got to chose a Holiday Gift Basket containing all sorts of goodies and topped off with a $100 Amazon gift card.

Childhood Cancer Community would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to each of our supporters!

First Presbyterian Church - Rochester (Donated gifts)
Caleb Eide Memorial Foundation - Donated gifts and 50 Gift Baskets
Deb and Wayne Nisbit - Donated blankets
Caring Hearts of SE MN - Donated gifts
Sherry Sathrum & friends - Donated gifts
Custom Alarm - Rochester (Donated gifts)
Regency Multifamily - The Pines (Donated gifts)
Alexandria Kvenvold - Donated gifts
Church of Christ - Plainview (Donated gifts)
Immanuel Lutheran Church Youth Group - Plainview (Donated gifts)
Merchants Bank - Rochester (Donated gifts)
Project Linus of SE MN - Donated quilts/blankets
Donna Richardson - Donated quilts
River Valley Arts Guild - Donated quilts/blankets
Paul & Bri Banon and family - One of our CCC families who served as Santa’s elves
Shelley Wingert & friends and family - Sorted and organized all of Santa’s gifts
Santa & Mrs. Claus - aka Jim and Julie Galkowski
Brendan Bush & Benazir Kerezoudis - Our professional photographers
And a special thank you to our countless volunteers that helped make the event so successful!