Donations allow Ho Ho Express to spread Christmas cheer

By: 
Steve Lyon
Generous donations, including a check for $10,000, will allow hundreds of local kids to go shopping this week with Santa Joe on the annual Ho Ho Express.
 Santa Joe will take 80 school kids from Annex shopping at Bi-Mart in Weiser on Wednesday. On Saturday, the Ho Ho Express will fill a caravan of school buses with 250 Weiser kids for a trip to Wal-Mart in Ontario, Ore.
 Santa Joe Malay received a $10,000 donation on Friday for the Ho Ho Express from Steve Dominguez, owner of the Hometown dealerships in Weiser, Payette and Ontario.
 The money was raised in September during the annual Steve's Hometown Dealerships Community Benefit, which featured two days of fundraising with the Taste of the Treasure Valley and live auction followed by the Hometown Community Scramble golf tourney.
 With the benefit proceeds, Dominguez helps out a number of charities and nonprofits in Weiser, Payette and Ontario, including Help Them To Hope, the Ho Ho Express and others. It's his way of giving back to community organizations in the tri-county area. 
 Malay has worked with Dominguez on the annual Hometown dealerships benefit and golf tourney for more than 20 years. And for each of those years, Dominguez has financially supported the Ho Ho Express.
 Santa Joe will be up early on Saturday morning for the big shopping trip on the Ho Ho Express. 
 About 250 kids and another 250 or so elves and high school helpers from Weiser will travel to Wal-Mart in Ontario, Ore. Each kid gets to spend $50 on whatever he or she would like. Ten buses will pick up the kids at Weiser High School and head out of town with a police escort.
 “I think the community getting behind it and getting all the buses escorted by the police to Ontario is such a cool thing for them to experience,” Dominguez said.
 The Ho Ho Express is a fun-filled trip for children from kindergarten through fifth grade. When they get back from shopping at about 11 a.m., volunteers will help wrap the gifts in the lunch room at the high school and everyone will have pizza for lunch. 
 Malay and the Ho Ho Express are given names by the school district of elementary school kids that might need a gift and a trip to go shopping. 
 The Ho Ho Express will brighten Christmas for another  40 older students at the Weiser middle school and 25 at the high school with gift certificates. 
 Annex school students also have been invited to take part in Malay's Ho-Ho Express for six years. Just like the Weiser kids, each child at Annex Charter School will receive $50 to spend on whatever they want at Bi-Mart in Weiser.
 They are helped out with the shopping by employees of Weiser real estate firm Select Properties. Volunteer firemen with Weiser City Fire and Rescue also assist the excited kids with shopping. 
 Select Properties owner Rod Panike and Santa Joe expanded the Ho-Ho Express to Annex School in Malheur County six years ago. Money from every property sale goes into the Ho-Ho Express fund, he said.
 In all, Malay said 400 kids will participate in the Ho Ho Express. Malay raises funds year around for the annual December shopping trip, which costs about $20,000 every year.
 The Ho Ho Express began nearly 25 years ago with a radio contest. Malay had been doing his Santa gig around Weiser for many years. A child touched his heart with a request for new shoes because the pair she was wearing were too big and they belonged to her mother. 
 Malay won $500 in a radio station contest and put the money toward his first Ho Ho Express. The holiday program grew from there. He said it never gets old, even after 25 years, because the kids keep it fresh and fun, he said.
 

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