Businesses Come Together to Give Back to the Community

The Hermantown Plaza's first ever Christmas Block Party brought in hundreds.

HERMANTOWN, Minn.- The Hermantown Plaza turned giving back into a full on Christmas celebration at their first ‘Best Christmas Ever’ block party.

Yellow Bike Coffee, True North Spinal Care and several other businesses in the plaza decided to team up and throw a Christmas party for the community.

Each company hosted a different activity like pictures with Santa, hot chocolate and cookies and even petting miniature horses.

The whole event was a fundraiser dedicated to ‘The Best Christmas Ever,’ an organization that helps families who have fallen to hard times with Christmas presents for the holiday and additional support throughout the year.

“We’ve all been through tough times and just communicating to those families that we see you, we love you, we want to support you, we’re your community,” Yellow Bike Coffee co-owner Shannon Cornelius said.

This year’s block party is sponsoring three unsuspecting families.

Last Christmas, the organization sponsored the Peterson family. Sophie Peterson’s mother was sick and passed away this past Spring. Sophie is the oldest of her siblings and was asked to sing Christmas songs at the block party this year.

“So Best Christmas Ever kind of helped us through that hard time and i previously started doing Christmas shopping and I played Santa a little bit for my mom at that point. It was a weird transition and they surprised us with a million gifts and lots of love and support throughout the season,” Peterson said.

The businesses in the Hermantown Plaza plan on hosting this event annually in the future.