THANK YOU TO OUR MINNESOTA NORTH STAR SANTAS FOUNDERS
SID FLETCHER
COOL, COOL, COOL
TOM PIERCE
SANTA UP NORTH
RANDY GABRELCIK
SANTA RANDY
DEBRA GABRELCIK
“HOTWHEELS”
CARL IMMEDIATO
SANTA CARLUCCI
DAN LUNDEEN
SANTA DAN
JANINE & LES HULKE
PAPA SANTA LES & MAMA CLAUS
CHUCK CLAUSEN
SANTA CLAUSEN
History behind the group:
1996 Santa Sid was employed by Lifetouch Photography. After the season he was informed they would no longer be in business. Sid asked if he could have their list of all their Minnesota Santas. Sid received a list of 25 Santas from Minnesota. Sid called everyone and setup a lunch meeting at the Little Oven Café. Everyone showed, and now has grown to over 109 members.
Santa Ken Coutier had a label machine, so he was put in charge of the mailing list. Each label had to be licked and placed on every envelope. It was a joyful time when self-adhesive labels finally were available. The good old days of contacting members by snail mail.
In 2002 Santa Carlucci wanted to do something special with the Santa group after Christmas. The first major group event was held at the VFW Club in Golden Valley. The event was called the “Santa Blues.” The Santa Blues Dinner has been going strong for 22 years. In 2024 The Santa Blues has now added a two-day Santa Training to the event.
In 2012 the group requested to get Insurance for the Santa’s. The only way to get group insurance was to be a corporation. So, five senior members of the group formed an LLC called, The Minnesota North Star Santas. Their names were Sid Fletcher, Tom Pierce, Carol Pierce, Randy Gabrelcik, Debra Gabrelcik. Debra (Hotwheels) ran the operation of the new LLC. With the LLC in place in 2013 Tom was able to setup the group with Santa insurance. Which has now grown to cover Santas, Mrs. Clauses, and Merry Makers. To be a member now you must have a background check and insurance.
In 2019 we lost Debra Gabrelcik, which was a huge blow to daily operations of our group. The perfect replacement for the group stepped up to help fill the loss of Debra. We want to thank Janine Hulke a volunteer, for all her many hours of sacrifice to keep our group going. In 2022 we lost Tom Pierce another huge loss to the group. In 2023 we lost Randy Gabrelcik.
With only 2 members left of the original five, a decision was made to take our group from an LLC to a nonprofit corporation. On July 24th, 2024 the Minnesota North Star Santas LLC was terminated. On July 24th, 2024 the Minnesota North Stars Santas was established as a Minnesota nonprofit entity. The paper work as of 8/7/2024 has been filed for a federal 501c3 nonprofit designation. The new corporation is governed by a Board of Directors. A new page will be put on the website to introduce all the new board members soon.
Thank you everyone past and present who made this group everything it is today!
Santa Jon Kirk
President
GROUP EVENTS PHOTOS TO REMEMBER:
