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The Stanly Dreamers celebrated the holiday season with a program at the C.B. Crook YMCA Pavillion in Albemarle.

At “Let’s Claus a Scene: The Christmas Experience,” children in attendance received gifts from Santa, including Mia Brown and Vance Leake, who each won bicycles as part of a raffle.

Tammie Owens and Jamond Pinkney performed a skit where Owens told the story of Christmas and the birth of Jesus as a bedtime story.

Tempest Leake shared information about the Kwanzaa holiday, which was started in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, chair of the Africana Studies department at California State University – Long Beach.

The festival, Leake said, was formed in the wake of the Watts riots to “bring the African-American community together” and combines harvest celebrations from the Ashanti and Zulu tribes. Kwanzaa goes from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, 2024.

Twana Pinkney, the founder and CEO of Stanly Dreamers, shared a message of thanks for the support of those who made the event possible.

Attendees then shared a meal together while the children opened their presents.

Stanly Dreamers is a nonprofit organization whose purpose, per the group’s website, is “dedicated to providing educational, cultural and mentor support for children in Stanly County.”