Santa Truck lights up Milltownpass
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The Christmas truck in Milltownpass.Image 2 of 13
Shane Irwin, Luke Irwin, Hannah Mitchell and Dylan Mitchell from Mullingar.Image 3 of 13
Aoife Lynskey (Milltownpass Tidy Towns committee) with Peter Polar Bear and Comet the reindeer.Image 4 of 13
Loraine Morrin and Sonia McDonnell at Milltownpass community centre.Image 5 of 13
The Grinch with John Joe and David NevinImage 6 of 13
Cyprian Aniagor Sr, Cyprian Aniagor Jr, Saoirse and Roisin Glynn with Santa and Mrs Clause inside the truck.Image 7 of 13
Julieanna and Caroline Carey from Milltownpass.Image 8 of 13
Felim, Cian, Rian and Dearbhla Flynn from Coralstown.Image 9 of 13
John Delamere and Sheila Barrett at the raffle table.Image 10 of 13
Terry Barrett, Katie McCormack, Arlene McCormack and Ciara McCormack at the Christmas disco.Image 11 of 13
Edel Earley with DJ Sarge whon provided the music.Image 12 of 13
Mayara, Otto and Aurora Ramos on Friday evening.Image 13 of 13
Noah Culbert, Jake Maguire and Aria Loren waiting for the truck to arrive.A mission to get the Santa Truck to Milltownpass delivered in a huge way this year, when the LauraLynn fundraising machine rolled into the village, decked out in Christmas lights, and greeted by cheers from the huge crowd on Friday week last.
Aoife Lynskey from Milltownpass Tidy Towns, the energetic group who organised the evening, said they had been trying for several years to have Santa Truck stop in their village, and this year, they got a call in early summer indicating that it could happen.
There was a huge amount of work to get through before the colourful lorry could get there, Aoife explained.
“Noel, the owner of the truck, rang to say that he’d be willing to have a look at Milltownpass as a potential location, so he came out and he met some members of our committee and he did a walk around Milltownpass and he figured out how it could work here.
“We’ve been working ever since as a committee of eight to bring it all together.”
As well as the Santa Truck, that committee had lined up lots of other attractions, including the Jingle Bells Boogie Disco for the kids, Toy Show Treat Boxes for sale today, and funds going to LauraLynn.
There was teas, coffees, snacks, and other food offerings.
“It’s an event that’s involved the whole community coming together,” said Aoife. “We’ve got 35 volunteers here on the ground, all of whom have either decorated the village, put Toy Show Treat Boxes together and helped in other ways to organise the event.
“It’s taken quite a bit of organisation, even with queue management as we know the event will pull potentially between two and four thousand people, so it’s a big event for our little village.
“We’ve had sponsorship from a number of different businesses – we would like to extend a huge thank-you to all of our sponsors, fantastic business support and individual support as well.
“We’re delighted to see people coming out in the poor weather, and we were worried about the weather today because we were promised storms but thankfully MilltownPass has escaped it for the most part, and although wet earlier, is great now and we’ve had people queuing from 4 o’clock today, so everybody’s very excited and a happy Christmas to everybody!”