{"id":69109,"date":"2025-12-12T19:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/69109\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T19:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:27:11","slug":"mta-bus-transformed-into-santas-express-for-staten-island-hospital-visits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/69109\/","title":{"rendered":"MTA bus transformed into Santa\u2019s Express for Staten Island hospital visits"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Santa Claus skipped out on his sleigh this Friday, electing to drive a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus to visit children on Staten Island this holiday season. <\/p>\n

This is the continuation of a decades-long tradition, where Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and their team of ATU elves pack a decorated local route bus with toys and goodies to deliver to dozens of hospitalized children on Staten Island through their annual holiday toy drive, Santa\u2019s Express.<\/p>\n

\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

Kids Against Cancer, a New York-based 501(c)(3) charity, teamed up with the MTA\u2019s Amalgamated Transit Union 726 for this event, with the goal of bringing a smile to the faces of children. <\/p>\n

\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.” Santa Claus and Nuccio Stuto, a former driver of the holiday bus.(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat made this so special was visiting the kids in the hospitals. There\u2019s so many special moments,\u201d shared Nuccio Stuto, the recording secretary for the ATU and a former driver of Santa\u2019s Express. \u201cI mean, kids really light up when you walk into the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year, the chosen bus undergoes a detailed North Pole-inspired transformation, with regular advertisements replaced by Santa\u2019s Express signs and the interior decorated with large ornaments, colorful garland and light-up candy canes.<\/p>\n

\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.” Before departing the Yukon Bus Depot, volunteers helped load the decorated bus with donated toys.(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.” Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus in front of the bus at the Yukon Bus Depot.(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a bus out of service for one day, and it\u2019ll be back in service tomorrow. It came off the route,\u201d said Nicolas Riviera, the executive board maintenance chair for the Staten Island division of the union and lead volunteer for the toy drive. \u201cWe did pretty much everything we needed to get done with it, the cleaning aspect of it, any repairs they need to get done with it, the tires. Last night we decorated it, we got the decals on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids Against Cancer Vice President Mark DeMeno has also been a leader of this event, promising to keep this tradition going for as long as he can. <\/p>\n

\u201cI made a promise. I\u2019m going to keep doing it every year,\u201d he shared. <\/p>\n

\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.” At the bus loading, Nicolas Riviera, along with Kids Against Cancer Vice President Mark DeMeno, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and other ATU 726 members posed in front of the bus with a donation to the organization.(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

The organization\u2019s goal is to create an uplifting atmosphere for children with cancer. It was formed after their founder and president Michael Grillo battled cancer in his twenties, and saw the need for holiday spirit in the children\u2019s wards of hospitals. <\/p>\n

After Santa\u2019s Express was packed with hundreds of donated toys ranging from Razor scooters and Pogo Sticks to dolls and stuffed animals, Santa himself made a farewell speech to his team, thanking them for keeping the magic alive. <\/p>\n

\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.” Before departing the Yukon Bus Depot, volunteers helped load the decorated bus with donated toys.(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas is very important to me. Being Santa is very important to me. It means a lot to me. I know you all believe, and I want you to continue to believe, because believing is what makes this special. Believing is what keeps Christmas alive,\u201d he shared. \u201cDon\u2019t ever let anything in this world tell you different. As long as you believe in Santa, the Christmas spirit and the Christmas season itself, nothing will go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro\"Santa'sATU 726 and Kids Against Cancer continue their decades-long tradition of bringing toys and holiday spirit to hospitalized children through “Santa’s Express.”(Advance\/SILive.com) | Nicolette Cavallaro<\/p>\n

The special, joy-filled bus first stopped at the other Staten Island bus depots to collect overflowing boxes of donated toys, before visiting the hospitalized children at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) in West Brighton. The following day, the bus is scheduled to visit the Applebee\u2019s in Charleston, where children can have breakfast with Kris Kringle himself and get a toy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tradition, and we\u2019ve got to keep it going. It\u2018s such a great thing. You know, we head to the hospitals and deliver toys. Most of it donated by the bus drivers and the mechanics,\u201d shared Daniel Cassella, the ATU 726 president. \u201cGiving back to the community, that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Santa Claus skipped out on his sleigh this Friday, electing to drive a Metropolitan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-69109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}