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The final numbers are in for one busy Santa and the numbers are out of this world.
Homestead’s Santa (Chuck Gugliuzza) and Mrs. Claus (C. Emilia Ayala), members of the Kiwanis Club of Homestead-South Dade, distributed more than 17,000 toys around the world this past holiday season, bringing smiles to kids in Colombia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Uganda, Malaysia, Nepal, and South Florida. That number included more than 4,000 toys distributed throughout South Florida.
“This was our busiest season since COVID,” said Gugliuzza, past governor of the Florida District of Kiwanis and a past International Trustee of Kiwanis International. “We’re getting close to our pre-COVID numbers (more than 20,000 toys distributed in 2019).”
Duirng the recent holiday season, Gugliuzza visited 35 different sites around South Florida including Redondo Elementary, Chapman Partnership Early Childhood Center South, the ARC of South Florida, Patches PPEX and Homestead Manor nursing home.
The visit to ARC of South Florida was like a homecoming to Gugliuzza and Ayala who began their Santa and Mrs. Claus identities there in 2001 with toy distribution to 50 kids.
“We’ve certainly come a long way since then,” said Gugliuzza, president of Alton Madison Property Management Homestead.
Over the years, many people have asked the couple about the worldwide nature of their toy distribution.
Ayala, who has been married to the South Dade Santa for 23 years, and has been a member of the Kiwanis Club of Homestead-South Dade — one of South Florida’s most active community service organizations — for years, put it succinctly.
“We are Kiwanians,” she said proudly. “We ‘speak’ children.”
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