QUINCY — Santa is made his rounds early, visiting children in Quincy and George last week with an escort from Grant County Fire District 3.

For four nights last week, Monday through Thursday, children in Quincy and George got to set eyes on Saint Nick as he traveled through nearly every neighborhood in those towns.

This is the second year that GCFD3 escorted Santa and his sleigh through the Quincy Valley streets.

GCFD3 firefighter and resident coordinator Lt. Michele Talley said she started the procession last year when she heard about a fire district up in Nine Mile Falls that did it in their community.

“With COVID-19 shutting down so many opportunities for Christmas celebration, I wanted to bring some Christmas cheer to our communities for Quincy and George. Even though there are more Christmas events this year, I wanted to bring it back because of the overwhelming response from the people who were so grateful for it last year.” Talley said. “I’m not sure who gets more joy out of it, the firefighters doing it or the people that enjoy seeing us out there.”

The route was split into four nights, with each night covering a different section of Quincy or George so no one was left out.

The procession included a GCFD3 pickup truck, fire engine, side-by-side, and a truck pulling Santa’s sleigh on a trailer. All the vehicles had their lights on and sirens and Christmas music was playing from a speaker on the side-by-side.

In the sleigh, rode Santa, Mrs. Claus and two of their elves. In the same fashion as last year, Santa and Mrs. Claus were played by Kent Bacon and his wife Kim Bacon. The couple have appeared as Santa and Mrs. Claus around the Quincy Valley for more than 10 years. Kent also has a connection to GCFD3 because he was a volunteer firefighter at the Winchester station for many years, Talley said.

Some members of the community have confused this procession with the fire district’s annual food drive, where the fire department drives the streets of Quincy to pick up food donations for the Quincy Food Bank. Talley said the food drive is scheduled for Sunday, starting at 1 p.m. Residents need only to put their non-perishable food donations out on their porches and firefighters and volunteers will pick them up along their way through town.

“This project has been a group effort through the volunteer firefighters, the career firefighters and donations from the community to build it. So, we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help. There were designers, the ones who cut it out and built it, those who decorated it with all the lights and and then those who staff the apparatus for the parade. There’s a bunch of us pulling together to make it happen,” Talley said.

“And yes, we’ll be back next year!” Talley added.