A local singing group has transformed a parking lot outside a South Side Chicago tennis center into a winter wonderland, in hopes of spreading l the holiday spirit and support those in need with a drive-thru holiday giveaway.
We all realize that Covid is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, so Dr. Walt Whitman of the Soul Children of Chicago and his youth singers decided to reimagine their annual toy giveaway as a socially-distant, drive-thru “soul santa’s village.”
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“So many people are stressed out and going thru the challenge and even our young people,” Whitman said. “We want to make sure that everybody feels the love and they feel the spirit of the season.”
Organizers are expecting at least 400 toys to be distributed.
The Soul Children of Chicago will perform and Santa Claus will make a special appearance.
This event will be held in the parking lot of XS Tennis located at 5336 S. State St.
Val Bourne appreciates light and shade at Spring Cottage
Credit: Marianne Majerus
Talk to 100 keen gardeners and a lot of them will mention a grandparent who took the time to show them the ropes. In my case it was my paternal grandmother, a doughty Yorkshire woman named Lucy Elizabeth Hardy.
We were both larks, up at the crack of dawn, whilst the rest of the owls slept on. I loved those early, one-to-one mornings, and this Victorian knew the language of flowers and every plant’s medicinal use.
She put the alchemist into alchemilla and Aquila the eagle into the aquilegia, explaining that the nectar-rich spurs at the back of the flower were talonshaped.