The township fire district will continue its tradition of taking Santa Claus on his annual tour around town on Monday.
The firefighters plan to hit all of Mantua, likely beginning in late afternoon, according to Fire Chief Brian Hauss, likely beginning in late afternoon.
“This is our most important event of the year,” he said. “We have been doing this since before the fire district started, when the town was protected by four individual fire companies. When we merged into the fire district, we knew that we needed to keep the tradition going, and we feel that we do it the best.”
One thing that separates this Santa escort from others is that the fire department offers residents access to a live tracker so they can see where its truck is at any given time. The department will post the tracker link on its social media pages as it begins the tour.
“We all love to see the smiling kids at the front door waving to Santa,” said Hauss. “We even drive through the shopping plazas so that everyone gets to see Santa. We love when residents come to the door with their dogs and get waves from all age groups, especially the seniors.”
Residents who live on a smaller or dead-end street are asked to show up at the nearest intersection to see Santa so the truck’s driver doesn’t have to turn around on a tight roadway. Dates and times are subject to change due to potential emergency responses and inclement weather; the department will attempt to make up for missed stops.
“All of the members of the fire department take great pride in our Santa run and really enjoy it,” said Hauss. “However, we do like to remind everyone that we are all doing this on our free time and volunteering to bring Santa around Mantua, and unfortunately, we are unable to please everyone.
“But we do try our best.”
