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Opportunity Village kicked off registration for the 2012 Las Vegas Great Santa Run with a “Christmas in July” opening ceremony on Thursday, July 19.  The rollercoaster platform at New York-New York was filled with Santas riding reindeer (a.k.a. the rollercoaster at New York-New York), hanging out with Mrs. Clauses (festively clad Vegas showgirls) and even receiving presents (the “World Santa Challenge” trophy!). Yes – Christmas was in the air.

The highlight of the ceremony was when Alan Rothwell, Event Director of the Liverpool Great Santa Run returned the “World Santa Challenge” trophy to Las Vegas and Opportunity Village as a result of last year’s record-breaking participation. “We are so excited we have won the championship for the most Santa Clauses…in the world,” said Linda Smith, Associate Executive Director of Opportunity Village.

The 2012 Las Vegas Great Santa Run will be held on December 1 at Town Square; please visit the website to register. Las Vegas set the “World Santa Challenge” record last year with 8,123 participants.

Opportunity Village Las Vegas charity is partnering with several companies in the community to make this year’s run an even bigger success.

“[New York-New York’s] Liberty Torch organization has adopted Opportunity Village,” said Cynthia Kiser Murphey, President and COO of New York-New York. “We volunteer at events. We raise awareness in the community about its services; we are actually customers of the services that Opportunity Village provides.”

In addition to representatives from New York-New York and Opportunity Village, Great Santa Run sponsors from Circle K, Town Square and Real Water were in attendance to pledge their support. “We are so happy that Alan from Liverpool could come all this way,” said Brent Jones, Founder and CEO of Real Water.” I just want to say I’m sorry were going to send you back empty handed again [next year].”

The perfect finale included vocalist George Dare serenading the crowd with the official Las Vegas Great Santa Run song, “Run Santa Run!”

Followed by dozens of team captains dressed like the big guy in red taking off on the rollercoaster while cheering for Opportunity Village charity. Photo credit: Opportunity Village

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2012 at 2:12 am and is filed under Las Vegas News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.