By Misty Cryer
The Second Annual Christmas Cruise is coming up, an event to help fund the Christmas program of Faith, Hope and Love Foundation that consists of a parade followed by lunch and entertainment. The community is invited to participate, bringing toys or monetary donations to benefit local families.
The Christmas Cruise of 2024 will be on Saturday, November 23. The line-up for the parade is at 10 a.m. at Bob Forrest Sports Complex. The cruise will start at 11 a.m. and end at the Beach Bandshell, where lunch and entertainment will be provided for participants who donate to the cause.
“This is the second annual one that we’ve done; it is for Faith, Hope and Love Foundation here in Carlsbad,” said Megan Granado, an event organizer. “What we do is, we have a small parade route. We welcome anybody who has a side-by-side, motorcycle, cars, trucks—anything basically that you can ride on—to come out and join the parade and bring a donation of toys or a monetary donation,” she said.
Granado said all the donations help fund the Christmas program administered by the Faith, Hope and Love Foundation, which benefits local families.
“We had motorcycles, side-by-sides; we had classic cars, classic trucks, jeeps; we had a pretty good mixture of everything. I was really, really surprised with the turnout we had,” she said about last year’s event.
“We have a picnic after and provide lunch to everyone that participates in the cruise and gives a donation,” Granado said. “We do that at the Bandshell following the parade—free lunch, we do have jumpers for kids—we like to make it kind of a family atmosphere. Just a couple of hours out of your day to have a good time. I do have a DJ that donates his time,” she said. The DJ is Anthony Alanzo (aka G Money).
“We sell T-shirts, and all of that money goes back to the foundation as well,” said Granado.
The Christmas Cruise was started last year by a small group of people, she said. “I’ve just been calling us the Christmas Cruise Group,” she said.
“We just decided to kind of get something started. We had a couple of run-ins with the foundation, and we decided, hey y’all do this big Christmas thing, let us help you get the toys that you need and some extra money,” said Granado.
“We had an amazing turnout, actually,” she said. She could not remember the exact number of vehicles that participated last year. “I want to say it was over 70 vehicles, and we raised almost $10,000. I didn’t get a count on the toys, but it was a lot of toys,” she said.
“First Methodist let us utilize one of their staff offices last year, and the toys that they collected from that cruise completely filled that staff office,” said Alana Carreon, Executive Director of Faith, Hope and Love Foundation. “It was so much, ranging from baby toys all the way to teenage gifts,” she said.
In addition to donations from participants, the Christmas Cruise has sponsors that contribute to the cause. The list of sponsors provided by Granado includes Black River Trucking, Forrest Tire, Jaime’s Welding, Legendary Welding Services, AR Foreman Construction, Drone Ops, BNT Weed Control and Services, Body Evolution, Bouncing Wright Along, JET, AKM Measurement, MS Energy, The Alibi, Steel Depot, Guadalupe Mountain Brewing Company, Wagonwheel Paint and Body, Evo BJJ, Whitco Supply, Creed Inc., Energy Transfer, A2Z Services, Synergy Logistics, PJ&B’s Rio Café, Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, Trace Midstream, and T and D Lube Doctors.
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