Students play Santa for workers on Christmas
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Many people don’t get to spend Christmas at home with their families, like those who work at places like hospitals and fire stations.
A couple college students decided to play “Santa” for those workers.
The two students are studying video production and make YouTube videos in their free time.
So they had the idea to deliver goodies to people working Sunday and make a video of the experience.
Video blogger and IUPUI student Liam Pineiro had a moment of appreciation this weekend and decided to act on it.
“That’s kind of messed up how people have to work on Christmas when everybody else is at home celebrating with their families, opening presents,” he said, “I figured myself, ‘Santa Claus’, and one of his trusty elves could return the favor.”
He called up his friend Zach Padgett, an Ivy Tech student, to help with the video and the day of service.
“I feel like it adds more of a dynamic to it, since he’s not by himself, just be a little elf helper you know like Santa has,” Padgett said.
Armed with colorful Christmas bags filled with homemade treats, they hit the town.
“We hopped in my car and we just drove around and saw what was open, what was closed and obviously we hit a lot of fire departments, police departments, hospitals,” Pineiro said, “Since they had to be there, we’re like we’re going to make this Christmas a little more jolly.”
For Padgett, the acts of generosity helped him pay it forward for help he received as a child.
“My mom had hard times with different things and we ended up in homeless shelters,” he said, “So any way we can help it’s great, I’m definitely grateful for any way I can give back.”
They said people were very excited to see them and have a little visit from Santa.
And they also hope that by sharing the video, they can share the idea to others in the community.
“Hopefully if it even inspires one person to go out and give back then that makes all the work worth it,” Pineiro said.
Click here to watch their video.