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NILES -- The spirit of Christmas was alive and well as students danced the night away at the 21st annual Winterfest Dance on Wednesday.
The four-hour event at Ciminero's Banquet Centre hosted 250 students with special needs from 18 high schools across Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, as they enjoyed dinner, dancing and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus -- who danced along with them.
Jeanne Constantino, a teacher at East High School and the event's coordinator, explained that this was their second year back, as they were forced to put it on pause for several years because of the pandemic.
"These students, they don't go to the regular prom, they don't do stuff like that," Constantino said. "Canfield used to have a prom and then I figured, 'Well, maybe there's something we can do for them.' They did the prom and we did the Winterfest and the prom stopped, but we kept going."
Constantino acknowledged the loss in numbers compared to their prepandemic event, which brought in 350 students in 2019. She said she isn't worried about it, and expects it to bounce back.
"I'm sure it's (the number of people) going to climb again because people keep calling and asking if we're going to have it, because it's based on grants and donations," she said.
Andrew Shoemaker, an intervention specialist with the Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio, has been attending the event for the past 10 years. He said Winterfest is treated like a big Christmas party for the intervention specialists as they get to see people they haven't seen in a long time, but it also allows special needs kids to just have fun.
"It provides everybody the opportunity to just enjoy being a kid. What's nice is they have all the parents leave at a certain time and they're allowed to come back and pick them up," Shoemaker said. "But there's a window where the students are just allowed to be themselves and have a good time."
Shoemaker said a majority of the parties that special needs students go to have their parents or guardians lingering, which adds to the value of being able to cut loose for them.
"We always look forward to it. The students love it -- as soon as the letter came in the mail of the school, the kids were all super pumped," he added.
Rick Craven of Boardman, who was there to drop off his grandson David Singleton said Singleton is well adjusted and enjoys being around people and other kids.
Singleton won Winterfest prince last year, in a selection where each attendee had a ticket with their name and school placed in a box with a male and female student from each school pulled as a representative, and then from that group of students the names of the Winterfest prince and princess are named.
"On the way over here I said, 'Do you remember being the king?' and he says, 'No, I don't remember,' but he has a picture of him near his desk, his teacher does," Craven said.
Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown returned as the event's DJ for the 21st year. Constantino said the mayor arranges his schedule to attend.
"I DJ'd, and when I started getting into my career, this was one of those parties I just, no matter what, thought it was important to give back and to be involved in," Brown said. "And it's probably the best time I've ever had every year; that's why I make time for it."
"This is when I know my Christmas and my holiday season has kicked off, the first Wednesday in December when I do this party," he added.