La Quinta hosts children's Christmas carnival
Dec. 15—Stillwater's La Quinta Inn by Wyndham staff hosted a children's Christmas carnival Thursday at its location off Sixth Avenue.
This is the second year the La Quinta staff has hosted the children's Christmas carnival. General manager Jennifer Castoe took the lead on organizing the event both years.
"I just felt like the kids needed to be able to something that's indoors and not freezing," Castoe said. "There's nothing to do in Stillwater, so I thought it would be something fun for the kids to do."
Inside the lobby and dining hall, staff set up creative carnival games, including basketball, face painting, Christmas-themed coloring pages and much more.
Castoe also dedicated a table to fundraising, in which the table had multiple raffles and free night stays. All proceeds would benefit Our Daily Bread.
Although Castoe is not personally involved with Our Daily Bread, it is a nonprofit that hits very close to home for her, and she began to get emotional when talking about the organization.
"Whenever I started, I had a lot of employees that were homeless, and they were struggling to eat," Castoe said. "So, I started a food pantry in my break room. I helped a lot of my employees get food."
Castoe's employees mean the world to her, and she loves working for La Quinta — where most of her family works alongside her.
Castoe said she continues her food pantry, and whenever she has any extra money, she will purchase items to provide for employees to take as they need. Castoe has a sign hung in her food pantry that reads 'take what you need, leave what you can,' and any employees needing food can take it home.
Castoe and her employees are all family-oriented, which is why they decided to host the kids Christmas carnival.
For staff member Ariel Frieberg, it was her first time hosting a booth at the kids Christmas carnival. Frieberg said she loved that the event was benefitting Our Daily Bread, as well.
"(Our Daily Bread) helps out the community, (and) we help with staying (in the community)," she said.
Frieberg said she was very excited to see all the guests, and she had kids coming up to her table in waves.
The children's Christmas carnival is all about the kids, and getting the La Quinta name into the community.
"Whenever I took over, our hotel wasn't really known," Castoe said. "We were trying to get our name out there, and ...were all really family oriented ... we just thought we would put something together for the community for the kids."
