Relay Santa visits area hospitals

Santa paid an early visit Thursday to two Sebring hospitals to lighten the hearts of children who would not be home for Christmas; and even a few who were there visiting family members.

Santa had 152 toys to give out that were collected at the two Sebring Walgreens locations from generous customers as well as the stores themselves and later wrapped for gender and age appropriateness by volunteers.

Playing Santa was Leonard Cochran, team development chairman for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Highlands County.

The team development chair oversees the team retention and team recruitment, getting teams together for the Relay for Life which will be held in April.

Cochran said he got the idea last year when his 18-month-old daughter was in the hospital at Christmas with pneumonia.

"That was the only time she's been sick," he said.

Cochran and his two helpers, Michael Sweet and Sandra Holstone, started their visits at Florida Hospital Heartland where there were about 10 children and five newborns who received gifts.

Cochran and Sweet both have disabilities and Holstone said she works for Mosaic Sale Solutions, where she is a merchandiser selling Disney movies to Kmart and Toys "R" Us stores.

Inside, the pediatric ward hospital staff welcomed the visit.

Cochran's first visit was to Olivia Mandrell, age 2, whose tiny face lit up with a big smile when she got her wrapped gift from Santa.

Little 7-month-old Gonzalo Garcia-Gomez reached up toward Santa. With mom's permission, was quickly scooped up into Santa's arms.

Andy Rios, is 21 months old. He was asleep when Santa walked in. He was startled to see Santa, who weighs 290 pounds, standing before him. Everything was all better as he looked toward mommy as Santa handed him his gift.

Santa said he used to be heavier, tipping the scale at 367 pounds. Still, he popped his shiny black belt with the big buckle as he left the room. Ho, ho, ho!

Santa paid a visit to a couple of children in the emergency room.

"Whoa! Racing cars," exclaimed one little boy. His little brother got a gift, too. Santa left a little something for a girl, age 2, who had just left to get X-rays. Merry Christmas!

Then Santa headed for the hospital's front door. On the way he handed out gifts to all the children he saw.

"That was really fun," said Michael Sweet. "I almost cried seeing those little kids."

"It's sad seeing kids in the hospital at Christmas," Cochran said.

Santa said he had two more children to visit at Highlands Regional Medical Center then he was going to hand out the remaining gifts around town. He said he had lots of presents left.

"I'll be distributing them to needy families with un-expecting and deserving children throughout the community," said Cochran.