Nominations Due Friday For James Edgar Award

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--The Downtown Brockton Association is accepting nominations for the annual James Edgar Community Service Award, given each year to the person in the community who best exemplifies first department store Santa Edgar’s spirit of generosity toward the city’s children.
To nominate someone for the James Edgar Award, please submit the following:
•Your name and contact information including phone number and email address;
•The name and address of the person you are nominating;
•A detailed description of how this person has benefitted the children of Brockton and why they deserve this recognition.
Please keep responses to a maximum of 250 words.
All nominees must be a Brockton resident.
The deadline for submitting nominations is Noon on Friday, November 4th.
Please submit nominations to Jennifer Kovalich, communications manager, Good Samaritan Medical Center at Jennifer.Kovalich@steward.org or Robert Malley, Executive Director, Brockton Parking Authority, at RMalley@cobma.us.
The recipient of the James Edgar Award will be honored during the 25th Annual Downtown Holiday Parade on Saturday, Nov. 26.
The honoree’s name will also be included on the Edgar Plaque on the James J. Adams Parking Garage on Main and Crescent streets.
Each person may only nominate one individual.
James Edgar was an immigrant from Edinburgh, Scotland who opened Edgar’s Department Store on Main Street in Brockton.
In December of 1890, he dressed up as Santa Claus based on a popular illustration of a jolly Santa drawn in 1863 by the famous cartoonist Thomas Nast.
Edgar did not intend for this to be a commercial attraction. He did it for the enjoyment of the children and to promote Christmas.
Edgar is considered the first by many to have begun the tradition of the department store Santa Claus.
Within days trains from as far away as Boston and Providence brought families and their children to downtown Brockton to see Santa. The idea quickly transferred to department stores around the country and continues to this day.
A city park is named for him.