Santa Claus never had an escort quite like the one he had Thursday night, as the Forgotten Child Fund’s Santa Train delivered gifts to six families around the Chattanooga area.
Firefighters, police officers, emergency workers and several dozen volunteers and family members piled into a caravan of nearly three dozen vehicles, including five CARTA buses, at the Fire Department Training Center on Amnicola Highway.
The Santa Train roared out onto the highway at 5:30 p.m., with sirens blaring. Santa rode in a black stretch limo preceded not by a reindeer with a red nose but a dozen patrol cars with blue lights flashing.
At the first stop, about five minutes away, officers closed off a block of Wilcox Avenue while some 75 people from the caravan plus a dozen or so neighbors attracted by the commotion, crowded around the single-story home and packed the living room.
Sixteen-year-old Malik Jones, whose mother Monica McMillon was shot and killed in their Alton Park home on Nov. 24, said he knew in advance the Santa train was headed his way, but “I had no idea there would be so many people.” His 3-year-old brother, Matthew, sat in Santa’s lap while 7-year-old Tatiana, who celebrated her birthday Wednesday, pulled gift after gift from two large boxes on the floor, in the glare of the lights from a TV news crew.