The Progress Center for Black Women recently hosted a huge holiday event on Dec. 2 where hundreds of kids had a fun, free day at the Madison Children’s Museum in downtown Madison capped off with a photo, taken by Shalicia Johnson of ArrowStar Photography, with Santa, played by Madison community leader Anthony Cooper.
That event was so incredibly popular that the non-profit organization is going to do it again. On Thursday, Dec. 14, 4-8 p.m., The Progress Center for Black Women will host a Meet & Greet with Santa with all kinds of activities for kids and their parents.
Sabrina Madison, founder and director of Progress Center for Black Women, a nonprofit on the Capitol Square for African-American women that offers co-working space and creates communities for business owners, was very happy about the turnout for the 5th annual Photos with Santa event at the Madison Children’s Museum.
“Every year before this year, we did it from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and so this year we stretched it [out longer] because we ended up having 1,400 people who came to the event. I could not believe how long the line was at some points during that day,” Madison tells Madison365. “A lot of people have made this an annual tradition for their families.
“I remember the first year we had 225 people attend in Fitchburg,” she adds. “So the event has really grown.”
The Progress Center, whose vision is to create more powerful communities of Black women who are leaders, doers, and owners, has also grown quite a bit over that time period since it opened its first home in Fitchburg in the fall of 2018 after meeting an ambitious fundraising goal. The Center moved to the Capitol Square in the summer of 2021.
“We just hit the five-year mark in November and so this spring, we’re gonna throw a five-year update event,” Madison says of The Progress Center for Black Women. “We have a lot of things planned for the future.”
Madison has also been tremendously busy as a City of Madison alder since assuming the position in October of 2022.
“It’s been an extensive experience learning how to be an alder and now that I feel like I have that down, I can turn my focus back to the Center because the year that I’ve been learning to be an alder would have been the year that we were working on implementing our strategic plan,” Madison says. “We’re now working on that strategic plan and implementing it presently. I feel good about where I am at managing being an alder and running the Progress Center. So I think we’re in a good place right now.”
The Progress Center took off so fast for Madison that she says she really hasn’t had a chance to reflect on the organization’s accomplishments and successes until very recently as she started to prepare for her fifth anniversary.
“The last four months or so I’ve finally had a chance to look back at some of the things we’ve done. We’ve interacted with 300-plus entrepreneurs across the state and maybe 25 or so from outside of Wisconsin. We’ve helped 55-plus Black women – just in this year – move towards stability,” Madison says.
“So, I’ve had a chance to look back, but also to look forward and to begin to implement our strategic plan and set ourselves up for the future,” she adds. “But in the end, I track my success through other Black women’s success.”
Thursday night’s Meet & Greet with Santa at the Progress Center for Black Women will not only be a chance to spread some holiday cheer, but it will also be an opportunity for community members to visit and learn more about the Center.
“We always have great partnerships with events like this and it’s the partnerships that really make it a good time,” Madison says. “We have a family that does the set design, a family who compiles and organizes, out of their own pocket, the treat bags. We have a family that does crafts at the [Madison Children’s] Museum who will also be doing it at the Center [on Thursday].”
Thursday’s Meet and Greet with Santa is for all ages. Adults without children are also invited to share the joy and take a picture with Santa himself. Cooper will once again be Santa and all the wonderful moments captured that night will be compiled into a single, convenient online folder to be shared with community members who attend and want to see their photos. “It’s a free event. If people want to retake their photo from our last big event, they can come out for that, too,” Madison says.
“There will be plenty of activities, too. We always used to have cookie decorating before the pandemic. We would like to do that again. We will have some arts and crafts and kids can make gingerbread men and ornament making. We’ll have stuff to keep the children busy as they wait to see Santa.”
For more information about Meet & Greet with Santa at the Progress Center for Black Women, call (608) 467-6744 or e-mail [email protected]. Progress Center for Black Women is located at 30 W. Mifflin St.
