In their fifth year, Cochrane Fire Services along with Cochrane RCMP and Cochrane EMS surpassed all expectations.

Handing out 1400 candy canes to children alone, Senior Firefighter, Dave Levisky, shares emergency services across the board was extremely pleased. "Certainly our best crowds yet! It is suspected we had over two thousand people out this year to say hi to Santa. For a first-year program, we were certainly happy with the result."

It has been a banner year for the Cochrane Fire department who collected a record amount of food for the Veterans Association Food Bank and Legacy Place Society throughout the month of November before topping it off with this inaugural campaign. "We collected a full pickup truck load of food, thanks, Cochrane!"

Besides collecting food, Fire Services held a friendly competition between communities judging them on the best lights, holiday spirit, and the most collected non-perishable food donations. "In the communities of Heartland, Riviera, Riversong, and Heritage Hills we saw great community turn out. When we debriefed about it as a group after the event, although, all the communities were quite close, Heartland had the greatest turnout and food donations."

Levisky shares with Heartland being named the winner, he will reach out to the Community Association early in the New Year for a potential date to hold a street hockey tournament facing off against the department's best stick handlers. "We have an outstanding record with our street hockey team but we tend to lose to the under ten crowd."

Going forward, Levisky states he will reach out to the community at large on how to improve the annual, cherished event. "We will get some feedback from the community and stakeholders but I think it would be nice to have longer stops and slower drives if we broke up the ride between two Santa’s."

Cochrane Now will be on scene to find out who will be victorious in the street hockey match.