AMC & Variety Kid's Holiday Movie Party
"Happy Feet"
December 5, 2006
AMC Ward Parkway Theatres

Santa Claus (aka Phil Sides) listens intently as each child has
his personal time with the big guy.

: Jennifer Wenzel and some
of the gift bags.

Santa's Helpers: (l-r) AMC's Cindy Huffstickler and Andy D'Orio, Variety ED Nadine Mummaw, volunteer Diane Fries, Variety President Greg Hogue, and Variety Directors Linda Norfleet and Jennifer Wenzl..

It was a work of love. Variety Director Jennifer Wenzl spent her personal time, evenings and a couple of weekends making sure the holiday gift bags for the children's holiday party would be filled with fun items. Her efforts paid off: Using donated funds, a local shopping trip founded the perfect stuffed toys to accompany the donations of movie memorabilia from distributors/movie companies and candy from AMC Theatres to stuff the children's gift bags.

And the hard work of all the volunteers paid off when the morning of Tuesday, December 5, 2006 arrived. Nearly 300 special needs children, many transported to the AMC Ward Parkway Theatre via Variety Sunshine Coaches, lined up single file as they entered the lobby, collected their soft drink and bag of freshly popped popcorn and found a seat, settling in to enjoy the happy sights and sounds of "Happy Feet."

After the movie ended, with huge smiles on their faces, and some dancing around with "happy feet" the children waited their turn to speak personally with Santa Claus. Receiving the overly stuffed gift bags and an extra side gift of a hard-bound copy of the book, "Zathura," was the icing on the cake, topping off an already outstanding morning!