Single Moms Breakfast with Santa

For Salt Lake Soroptimists, the holiday season officially starts on the day we host the Single Moms’ Breakfast with Santa.  This year, our seventh, was no different.  On Saturday, December 7, SI SLC members and many other community volunteers turned West High School into a holiday wonderland for 160 single mothers and their 319 children. 

The Single Mom’s Breakfast with Santa is intended as a reward to single mothers who are doing something to improve their lives and the lives of their children.  We encourage these mothers to build holiday traditions with their children, as these traditions, more than the gifts; will be what the children will remember in years to come. 

Participants are invited to attend through our partner organizations which include the young parents programs at two alternative high schools, two drug rehab programs, and organizations which serve the working poor and refugees.

Breakfast was donated by Café Madrid.  Volunteers escorted the single mothers and their children to a linen-covered table where they were served their breakfast. 

After breakfast it was off to visit Santa and to get what for many of the mothers was the only photo they would have of their children this year.  Then the fun really began.  The children were escorted to the wrapping area by volunteer elves that helped them select and wrap gifts for their mothers.  The mothers were escorted to “Santa’s Secret Workshop,” where warm clothing purchased specifically for their children awaited, along with a huge selection of toys.  The mothers selected toys for their children, and volunteers helped them carry their packages out to their cars and out of the sight of their excited children.  Families were reunited, with children beaming with pride at the wrapped gifts they carried, and mothers breathing a sigh of relief that the financial stress of Christmas was over.  

We are proud of these single moms who are working so diligently and setting such a great example to their children.