Christmas Adventure brings host of holiday characters to Lee’s Summit children

More than 2,000 people packed Summit Park Church’s south campus in Lee’s Summit Friday night for a Christmas adventure.

Although the reindeer on-hand for the event was somewhat uninterested in the proceedings, volunteers dressed as Buddy the Elf, Kristoff and Elsa from “Frozen”, the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who, and more chatted and took photos with groups of excited children throughout the building.

After walking through an outdoor tunnel of lights, visitors were sprinkled with theatrical snow falling from the ceiling as they walked into the building. They wound their way around brightly lit trees to different photo stations to take pictures with their favorite character, from Olaf to Santa.

“We live in an Instagrammable world,” said Pastor Scott Obremski.

Running concurrently with that experience was a short live performance of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” featuring children from Bright Lights Institute performing group. The troupe performed the show repeatedly throughout the evening to give everyone a chance to see it.

“I thought the Charlie Brown show was awesome,” said Eric Wehmueller, who came to the event from Independence with his kids.

The event grew from one the church held last year in a tent in the parking lot before and after a service. This year’s event was not connected with a service and made use of the whole building.

Admission to the event was just a non-perishable food item to be given to Lee’s Summit Social Services.

“We usually (donate) presents, but they told us, ‘This year, what we really need is food,’” Obremski said.

The event garnered 800 food items for the agency, plus a $10,000 donation from the church.

Church staff members and volunteers worked hard to get word of the event all over Lee’s Summit and not just to church members.

“We wanted to be a blessing to families in the area. … All of it is an attempt to give people something they can’t get or haven’t gotten,” he said.

Sponsors of the event were Continental Siding, Roy and Son Fencing, Lee’s Summit Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, Apollo Insurance Group and the Cirelli Group.

This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 12:04 PM.