Rainbow Bar asks for donations to rebuild Santa’s Workshop

Ishpeming — After someone set fire last weekend to the site of a local Christmas tradition, one community is coming together to rebuild.

Rainbow Bar on East Canada Street has announced that they are asking for donations to rebuild Santa’s Workshop.

Rainbow Bar owner Shelly Thibeault says the recent burning down of the beloved holiday tradition has had a real impact on the community. She and the staff at Rainbow Bar decided that they wanted to do something to help.

“This is a good community,” said Thibeault. “Ishpeming gets a bad reputation, but it’s a great community. People here are awesome, and they’re all willing to give. We just want to see it thrive.”

Ishpeming Fire Chief Ed Anderson explained why rebuilding Santa’s Workshop is such an important thing for this community.

“I think a lot of people look forward to Santa’s Workshop,” said Chief Anderson. “Traditionally the Friday after Thanksgiving we have a parade, and Santa comes to town and visits with the kids at his workshop. A lot of people look forward to that, young and old.”

Through the community’s donations, the hope is to have Santa’s Workshop rebuilt in time for this Christmas. 100% of the money raised by Rainbow Bar will go directly to the Ishpeming Community Events organization. If you want to help keep this Ishpeming Christmas tradition alive, you can visit Rainbow Bar and donate inside, or you can go to their Facebook page. A GoFundMe has also been set up to help rebuild, and that can be found at this link: https://www.gofundme.com/santa039s-xmas-house-replacement.