There was no snow to be seen in the Sydney sky, but that didn’t stop Santa and his loyal elves from making an early visit to the city to bring some Christmas joy to children from the ‘bush’, attending the Royal Far West Charity’s school in Manly.
Royal Far West is one of the charities supported by hotel owner Dr Jerry Schwartz, who organised for high-rise window cleaning entrepreneur Edvaldo Godoy of Updown Access to ‘sleigh’ (well, abseil) down the face of the Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour (35 storeys and 115 metres) in full Santa outfit, accompanied by his chosen elves to celebrate the Christmas festive season.
They also brought down a message created by children proclaiming “Life’s Beautiful – Merry Xmas”.
At the base of the Sofitel, they were eagerly welcomed by children from the Royal Far West charity, Australia’s only national charity dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of country children. The children are attending the Royal Far West School in Manly, which provides visiting country students with the opportunity to access health specialists and personalised learning.
Santa delivered gifts for the children, who were then treated to a silver service afternoon tea at the Sofitel.
“We do this event annually because it delivers so much joy to the kids and their parents,” said Dr Schwartz, the owner of the Sofitel.
“This is the final day of their stay at the Royal Far West school, so it is a really positive way to end their visit to Sydney, and hopefully, they go home with happy memories of seeing Santa coming down a skyscraper with bags full of treats.”
