{"id":373,"date":"2011-12-27T14:12:31","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T14:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexingtonhomeschicago.wordpress.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2011-12-27T14:12:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T14:12:31","slug":"operation-north-pole-happy-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/operation-north-pole-happy-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation North Pole &#8211; Happy Holidays!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexington-staging.graphiclanguage.net\/about\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/picture-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-374\" title=\"Picture 1\" src=\"http:\/\/lexington-staging.graphiclanguage.net\/about\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/picture-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Members of the Des Plaines Fire Department recently joined numerous volunteers, Mayor Martin J. Moylan, Operation North Pole (ONP) President Barb Dabler and ONP Treasurer, Tim Crossin as they took part in a special \u201cPolar Express\u201d ride to the North Pole.<\/p>\n<p>With the help of the many volunteers, ONP provided a day of holiday fun for critically ill children and their families \u2013 one day where they did not have to worry about sickness, hospitals, doctors, and treatments.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-eight families took part in the day\u2019s activities which began with a buffet breakfast with Ronald McDonald and Mrs. Claus at the Des Plaines headquarters of the Illinois Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union, followed by a bus ride to downtown Des Plaines where participants, Mrs. Claus and Santa\u2019s helpers boarded the \u201cPolar Express\u201d (specially-decorated METRA train) en route to \u201cthe North Pole.\u201d\u00a0 During the train ride to Harvard and back (during which time the union hall was transformed into the \u201cNorth Pole), families enjoyed hot cocoa and McDonald\u2019s Happy Meals, sang songs, played games and waved to the fire departments and members of the public that were at each train stop to cheer on the families and direct the train to the \u201cNorth Pole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once back in Des Plaines, they were greeted by Santa, \u201cNorth Pole\u201d Mayor Martin J. Moylan and Des Plaines firefighters.\u00a0 A police car and fire engine escort led the families back to the North Pole for more festive activities, including magicians, interaction with storybook characters, cookie making, a sundae bar, nail painting, face painting and much more, with the highlight being each family\u2019s personal visit with Santa, who provided mounds of presents.<\/p>\n<p>Operation North Pole, Inc. is a 501(c) (3) public charity whose mission is to provide a December holiday fantasy free of worry for area children who deal with life-threatening medical conditions and their families. For additional information on ONP, call 847-813-5387, e-mail at barb.dabler@gmail.com, or visit the <a title=\"Operation North Pole website\" href=\"www.operationnorthpole.org.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Operation North Pole website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Holidays to all of our friends at Lexington Park and Lexington Station!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of the Des Plaines Fire Department recently joined numerous&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27],"tags":[79,80,121,146,222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lexingtonchicago.com\/about\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}