Ventura : Students Cheer Up Sick Children

Santa’s cotton-white beard kept slipping below her chin, her Christmas cap was two sizes too big and she was worried that her big red pants were about to drop to the floor.

But that didn’t stop Santa-for-a-day Chantell Madrigal of Oxnard from cruising the halls of Ventura hospitals Thursday in search of sick children in need of a little holiday cheer.

Trailed by a group of Latino high school students from the Oxnard-based Concerned Students Organization Network, who served as her elves, Chantell delivered candy-filled Christmas stockings to children at Ventura County Medical Center and senior citizens at Ventura Community Hospital.

A little uneasy in her new role, the 16-year-old Frontier High School student slightly flubbed her first lines.

“Ha-ha-ha,” Chantell belted to the first patient she visited, a 5-year-old named Nicole.

But Nicole didn’t mind. The youngster, who was preparing to leave the hospital after a three-week stay, thanked Santa and quickly spilled the sugarcoated contents of her stocking onto her hospital bed.

The hospital visit is part of a leadership program offered by El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, an Oxnard-based social services agency. Residents donated $200 to buy candy and stockings for the program.

“It was the group’s idea,” program supervisor Maria Campos-Herrera said. “They wanted to cheer up the little kids stuck in hospitals this time of year.”

But at Ventura Community Hospital, the students couldn’t find any sick children and visited senior citizens instead.

“You mean to tell me that Santa Claus is a girl?” one woman asked.

“Don’t tell nobody,” Chantell responded.

Halfway through her appointed rounds, the well-padded and red-suited Chantell had worked up such a sweat that several patients wondered whether she should sit down and rest.

“I hope you’re not too warm so far from the North Pole,” another woman said.

“Ho-ho-ho,” Chantell said, getting the vowel right this time. “I just hope you have a merry Christmas.”