With summer coming to a close in the next few weeks, the VRA has the Santa train to look forward to. The Santa train committee consisting of myself, Carolyn Hoffman, Joe Mele, K.C. Smith, Betsy Newbury & Charles Smith have already held our first meeting on August 4th (retailers held their Christmas meeting in April!).
As with last years Santa train, we are running only one day, Saturday, December 4th. Sundays NJT has its hands full with trains for the football games. We’ll be running out of Glen Rock Boro hall for the first time in two years.
The plan is to have a total of 10 cars, 9 passenger and 1 crew car. There will be 3 trips for the day. 9:30, 12:00 and 2:30. I’m pushing NJT for as many bathroom equipped cars as possible, and I’m hoping that we have a minimum of 4 bathrooms.
As always, we need volunteers to make this work. We’ll need 18 car hosts, 4 characters, 4 character helpers, 4 Santas, 4 Mrs. Claus, and at least 8 platform people. That’s a minimum of 42 people. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact me directly by email: berkemeyerjj@yahoo.com.
As important as the volunteering effort is on the day of the train, there is an equally important time BEFORE the train pulls out of the station. We must sell this train to the public. With out their turnout, we will not have a train to run. Starting November 6th, the station will be open every Saturday until December 4th so we can take calls to sell tickets, and answer questions. Also, the station will be open every Tuesday and Thursday night for tickets and questions that come in via phone. I ask that anyone that can help out, please lend a hand. The efforts put forward before December 4th will pave the way to a successful and profitable operation. This years proceeds will go towards the completion of the station restoration and the park.
We will be having another planning meeting at some point in early October just before the signs and banners start going As important as the volunteering effort is up. I’ll keep everyone posted as to the date and time. I’m hoping this meeting can take place at the station once it is moved. Anyone interested in attending is welcome to join.
Jon Berkemeyer