{"id":87937,"date":"2025-12-18T13:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/87937\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:19:13","slug":"county-treats-local-kids-to-breakfast-with-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/87937\/","title":{"rendered":"County treats local kids to Breakfast with Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 100 children, ages 1 to 10, joined their parents Dec. 13 at Hillsborough County\u2019s Breakfast with Santa. Filled with lots of laughter and excitement, the free event treated them to pancakes, craft activities, \u201csnow\u201d bubbles and a visit from the Jolly Old Soul himself. Even the Grinch couldn\u2019t resist sneaking in for some mischief.<\/p>\n<p>Mayra Adame, of Ruskin, brought her 9-year-old daughter, 8-year-old niece and 6-year-old nephew to the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is so awesome,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great holiday experience for the kids to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruskin resident Fabiola Martinez agreed as she watched her 7-year-old son, Elias, complete a Christmas wreath craft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love this because it brings the community together during the holiday season,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun, entertaining and a safe environment for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s exactly why organizer and recreation leader Mari Galvan brought Breakfast with Santa to the Ruskin Recreation Center this year. She helped with this same event last year at the Balm Recreation Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was such a nice event; I wanted to bring it here for our Ruskin community to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Friends of the County Parks was co-sponsor.<br \/>Lois Kindle<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44471\" class=\"size-large wp-image-44471\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SANTA-6-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44471\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Robinson and his 11-month-old grandson, Leo, smile as Virginia \u201cGinny\u201d Montanz stops to greet them. Montanz served pancakes, bacon and sausages to 100 children and their parents at Breakfast with Santa, Dec. 13.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44470\" class=\"size-large wp-image-44470\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SANTA-5-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44470\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Recreation leader Maria Galvan brought Breakfast with Santa to the Ruskin Recreation Center this year after helping out in 2025 at the same event at Balm Recreation Center. She\u2019s seen here gathering bags of candy for Santa to hand out to each child who visited him.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44469\" class=\"size-large wp-image-44469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SANTA-4-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44469\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julian Revilla, 10, and three younger boys romp through soapy \u201csnow\u201d bubbles at the Jan. 13 Breakfast with Santa event.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44467\" class=\"size-large wp-image-44467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SANTA-2-1000x1250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1250\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44467\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ruskin resident Elias Martinez, 7, works intently, stringing beads for a tiny Christmas wreath, during one of numerous craft activities at the recent Breakfast with Santa holiday event at the Ruskin Recreation Center.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44468\" class=\"size-large wp-image-44468\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SANTA-3-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44468\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amber Mullins, of Ruskin, mother of six children, cuts pancakes into smaller pieces for her little ones. Her older children volunteer for special events at the Ruskin Recreation Center, including Breakfast with Santa.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44466\" class=\"size-large wp-image-44466\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SANTA-1-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44466\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LOIS KINDLE PHOTOS<br \/>Santa, aka Vance Mesa, shares a secret with delighted 7-year-old Annalise Meza at Breakfast with Santa Dec. 13 at the Ruskin Recreation Center. The free event was sponsored by Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 children, ages 1 to 10, joined their parents Dec. 13 at Hillsborough County\u2019s Breakfast with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-87937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}