Lockport Love’s annual parade Saturday featured carols, gifts and Santa

Santa and a parade of volunteers bearing gifts and holiday cheer stopped at several Lockport homes on Saturday.

The Lockport Love Holiday Gift Parade is an annual event of Lockport Love, a nonprofit charity the Lockport Police Department started in 2014, Bert Thompson, Lockport Love president, said.

Lockport Love fundraises and accepts donations throughout the year to help Lockport families in need, Thompson said

During the holiday season, Lockport Love sponsors several families in need for Christmas gifts, Jodi Turnbough, Lockport Love secretary said. Then, with a parade of emergency vehicles, Santa and about 50 volunteers delivered the gifts to each recipient’s home, she said.

“We sing Christmas carols and then Santa gives them the gifts,” Turnbough said.

On parade day, volunteers meet at 8 a.m. at the American Legion Post 18 in Lockport for breakfast and then leave at 9 a.m., Turnbough said.

“We’re just a small nonprofit of volunteers, local business folks, some law enforcement, the fire department, people from the community; that’s how I got involved,” Thompson said. “All of the money stays right here in the town and helps your neighbors.”

Thompson said the parade is a “special time” for most families, although some are embarrassed by the attention, he said. But he said he loves the awe on the children’s faces when the parade reaches their homes.

“Just to see the smiles on their faces when the fire trucks and the tow trucks just pull up is just amazing,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he started with Lockport Love as the liaison to the families and that Thompson and his wife sponsored some families over the years, too. Then Thompson sat on the board and eventually became president, he said.

“It’s been a great group for everybody,” Thompson said. “Nobody makes any money. Nobody takes a salary. When we have fundraisers, 100% goes back into the group. It’s a good thing.”

Thompson said Lockport Love has helped families where a member has a terminal illness” or a “very bad medical problem.”

But sometimes, families are going through job loss or a divorce, Turnbough said. “Some people that are very ill, so we make their house payment for them or pay their medical bills just to get them through this hard time,” Turnbough said. “Someone called the other day and asked if we could give her grandson a coat. He’s 2 1/2 and does not have a coat.”

And some people are “just down on their luck,” Thompson said.

“It’s a funny thing, but we never thought about how many families we’ve helped,” Thompson said. “We’re a small group of people. If you think about it, we help five, 10, sometimes 20 families each year. Each family’s got three, four kids. All of a sudden, it’s been eight years. We’ve probably helped over 1,000 people. … it makes me feel great at the end of the day.”

For more information, visit lockportlove.com.