Dec. 16, 2007 — Shoppers shopped, children laughed and played on the jungle gym at Sunny Isle Saturday. Photos of Santa were snapped, and flashes were needed.
Some stores at the shopping center were in complete darkness for hours as the Water and Power Authority had its second major power outage on St. Croix this week. The outage did not seem to lessen the Christmas spirit or the holiday buying and selling. Parking spaces were at a premium in the center's large parking area.
Power on the island went out a little after noon and was restored by 4 p.m. Kmart was generating its own power and its checkout lines were long all afternoon.
WAPA didn't return a call inquiring about the outage.
"Even with the power off, everything is going fine this afternoon," said Sharine Hassell, Intel security guard.
For the 10th year merchants sponsored free photos with Santa Claus. "We have enough for 500 Polaroid photos this year," said Caron Roberts, promotional director for Sunny Isle.
Working in near darkness was Carmalo Rodrieguez, manager of Applause, attending to customers as best he could. "Hopefully Santa will do something for WAPA," Rodrieguez said. "The outage is a problem, but we are still in the spirit of things."
Julia Lockhart was taking a break from shopping while her son played in the playground. "I still have a lot of shopping to do, but I still have plenty of time," Lockhart said.
The activity outside on the sidewalks was brisk with vendors selling everything from Christmas corsages to CDs to cookies and cakes.
The Girls Missionettes Club of First Assembly of God was doing gift-wrapping to raise funds. "This is our second fundraiser for the girls and it is going very well," said Jean Wilson, spokeswoman for the girls club. "This is a new club that gets girls involved in positive things," Wilson added.
Josephine Alicea was collecting money for the Salvation Army in front of Kmart. "The people are very giving today," Alicea said. "I'm doing my part just trying to make a difference in people's lives."
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