As hard as smiles are to find, the staff at Mountain Vista knew they had to do something to bring happiness around the holidays.
For 51 years the senior living facility has received gifts from Fairmount Elementary School down the street in Golden. Usually, more than 100 students come to deliver the gifts in person. This year, because of COVID restrictions, they couldn’t do that, but still collected gifts to be passed out to senior residents by the staff inside.
Felicia Santillanes, who works at Mountain Vista, dressed up as Santa and handed out the gifts to her residents. My biggest thing is to try and put a smile on their face every single day. I feel like as long as I do that, I’m doing my part, said Santillanes. Being Santa for them meant a lot, not just for them, but for me also.