By Michael Horowitz
BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 18- Santa Claus, played by Co-op City locksmith Louis Loscalzo, was, once again, the star of the show at the community’s winter-holiday celebration, which was held in the auditorium of the Dreiser Loop Community Center.
Co-op City’s effervescent Santa was on hand early to accommodate the community’s delightful children. including Adam Martinez, 5; Eriella and Sienna Gonzalez, 1 ½ and 8 respectively, and Marcel Williams, 4.
For the children, sitting on Santa’s lap was clearly the highlight of the celebration.
Among the highlights of the festivities were the lighting of the Christmas tree by representatives for City Councilman Andy King, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, and Rep. Eliot Engel, as well as the lighting of the Chanukah Menorah by long-time shareholder Barbara Rose and the telling of the Kwanzaa story by Co-op City’s Girls Scout troop.
Adorable tots from the Garvey School and the Learning Ladder Day Care Center spread holiday cheer, and so did singers and dancers from the Co-op City Baptist Church, the Faith@Work Christian Church, the Cathedral United Baptist Church, and the Greater Love Baptist Church.
As in recent years, the winter-holiday celebration, sponsored by the Riverbay Fund, was a time for the community’s younger families to celebrate their children and for the community as a whole to celebrate positive aspects of life in Co-op City.
