Santa makes an early visit to CETC

Tiffani Luffsey shows the gifts she received from Santa at the Cache Employment and Training Center Christmas party Friday.

LOGAN – It was an exciting time at Cache Employment Training Center (CETC) Friday. CETC is a 501( c) nonprofit organization that teaches people with disabilities life and employment skills.

Janet Flinders gets excited watching one of the clients open the presents. Flinders has been dressing as Mrs. Santa for 17 years at the event.

Clients and staff got to meet with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. They came bearing gifts for the 148 clients who come to work there. It was an all-day affair.

Janet Flinders, a Logan Kiwanis Club member, has been doing the Santa gig at CETC for 17 years. She buys the gifts, finds the Santa and puts on her Mrs. Santa clothes to play the part. And she gets as excited as the clients when they open their gifts.

One by one they come to meet Santa and get a gift or two.

Flinders came with her husband for years, until he passed and she continues now with a friend. Friday, Dec. 13 she came bearing gifts for the 148 clients who come to work at the facility.

“There are not many people who would volunteer to do this for 17 years,” said CETC Executive Director Kae Lynn Beecher. “She buys the presents and wraps them and gives them to the team members.”

The Christmas activity is supported in a large part by the Logan Kiwanis Club. They donate $5,000 every year to help pay for the gifts, and Beecher said there are other business and families that donate to the cause.

“One wanted to save it and open it on Christmas morning,” Beecher said. “It broke my heart.”

Mike Guthrie, right, dressed as an elf, and with his daughters Kadie and Fischer also helped as an elves.

Mike Guthrie dressed as an elf, and with his daughter Katie they took the clients to Santa and gave them a bag of gifts. Claire Fischer also helped as an elf.

“This is a largely forgotten population, so it’s nice to give them an experience like this,” Beecher said. She said some of them live with family and some are on their own.

Members of the Logan Kiwanis Club came to see the excitement caused by the Jolly Old Elf.

Kiwanis Club and their partners are dedicated to improving the lives of children in the communities they live in.

 

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