Westpark Community Center celebrates Christmas for the last time on current site

Fresh off a busy Christmas, Santa Claus made one last stop in Bremerton Tuesday.

Santa was on hand Tuesday afternoon for the last Westpark Children’s Holiday Celebration at the public housing community.

“This is the last celebration we’re going to have here,” said Alex Boede, community and supportive services manager for the Westpark Community Center.

The Bremerton Housing Authority is in the process of relocating Westpark residents so they can tear down and rebuild the World War II-era public housing area. Boede said the housing authority plans to have everyone moved by the end of the year, making this year’s holiday celebration the last at the current site.

Marathon Development, of Bellevue, helped put on the Westpark Children’s Holiday Celebration for the third year in a row. Marathon is working with the Bremerton Housing Authority on the Westpark redevelopment.

“They put a lot of work into it and the kids were really looking forward to it,” Boede said.

The holiday celebration was originally scheduled for Dec. 22, but the weather forced the Westpark staff and volunteers to postpone the event until this week.

“Last week kind of got all messed up with the weather,” Boede said.

He said canceling the celebration was never an option because nearly 100 children were signed up to attend the Westpark Community Center event.

“I wanted to make sure we had it,” he said. “(The children) ask us about August if we’re having a Christmas party.”

Boede said it costs about $2,000 to put on the Westpark Children’s Holiday Celebration. They bought gifts, food and craft supplies for the children to create candy cane reindeer and paper snowflakes.

“The gifts themselves were almost $1,500,” Boede said. “Some kids didn’t get Christmas gifts this year.”

Boede said he enjoys seeing the children’s faces when they open their gifts and do the craft projects at the holiday celebration.

“It’s all about having fun,” he said. “By doing something like this for the kids, it shows that we really care about them.”

Children also took part in a raffle at the Westpark Children’s Holiday Celebration where a few lucky young people won restaurant gift cards. Boede said the gift cards were raffled off so the children could treat their parents and siblings to a nice meal.

“We feel that kind of promotes family,” he said.

While this was the last Children’s Holiday Celebration at the current Westpark Community Center, Boede said there may be bigger, better celebrations once the public housing community is rebuilt.

“A great thanks to Marathon and their dedication to helping put this on,” he said.

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