GFWC Junior Women’s Club of Butler arts chairwoman Dana Summerville, an elf, and volunteer Sam Miller, a conductor, show children and their parents how to move like the Polar Express through a series of stops in Memorial Park last year. Butler Eagle File Photo

Members of the GFWC Junior Women's Club of Butler have become Christmas elves the past two Decembers, and they will once again be Santa’s helpers this season.

The organization's members set up a walk-along storytelling experience based on the animated “Polar Express” movie in 2020 in Alameda Park, which was initially just a way to raise money during the COVID-19 pandemic. It turned out to be a huge draw for the community.

“We had created this little skit that told the Polar Express from an elf's perspective,” said Dana Summerville, arts chairwoman for the GFWC Junior Women's Club of Butler. “We are all elves who get the kids on the train to the North Pole to meet Santa.

“It was such a ginormous number that registered.”

The Polar Express will return to Butler County on Dec. 18, this time at Memorial Park, where it also stopped last winter. People who register to attend can walk through the park to different train cars and watch the story unfold through the different scenes and actors at each one.

While the experience is described as interactive by Summerville, she said it only takes a brief time for visitors to get through.

“It's probably a 10 to 12 minute walk through, no longer than 15 minutes,” Summerville said, “then you come back to the pavilion and get your cookie and cocoa.”

Summerville said people who visited the express last year or the year before will still find some new details in the presentation this year. She also teased a new “twist” on the formula.

“We always kind of change things in the sense of decorations,” Summerville said.

The Polar Express will take visitors at Memorial Park from 3 to 5:30 p.m., and registration is required and costs $5 for a family of four, or $2 per person. Registrations can be made by visiting the women’s club’s Facebook page.

Summerville said she is looking forward to the event, because of the reaction she gets to evoke in visitors, especially children.

“We love to see the community smile,” Summerville said. “I just love seeing them get on the train and do the train noises; it's just a super fun thing to do.”