Every year around this time, as we all know, Santa Claus employs myriad helpers to distribute gifts to people in need. However, few helpers have achieved the awe-inspiring success of Dick Clough’s Tour of Good Cheer.
This year, Saturday, December 20th will mark the 41st year Santa Clough will lead roughly 100 of his elves – er, volunteers – as they mount their sleighs – four chartered Barons Bus vehicles – to visit multiple prearranged sites throughout the city. There, they will distribute more than 5,000 toys, coats, sweaters, socks and other clothing and gifts to men, women and children who are marginalized and could use a little extra cheer at the holidays.
Kids receive a tour-branded gift bag where they can joyously tuck the toys they collect. Always mindful of making the day fun for everyone, Clough hands out hundreds of Santa hats that he gets at a “very good price.” There are always extra Christmas knickknacks and items people can take to decorate or give as gifts.
To heighten the jollification and holiday spirit of the tour, the swamp pop band Cats On Holiday will once again perform Christmas and holiday songs at each stop.
To ensure that that there are no delays or unnecessary detours during their excursion, a Cleveland Police escort will guide the buses along their merry way.
All the festivities come after a year of work by Clough and his small team of volunteers who help with planning, preparation and acquisition of donations of money, warm clothing and toys.
“It takes all year to put all of this merchandise together, raise the money and do several fundraising parties,” Clough said. “Then right after Thanksgiving, it takes about three weeks before the tour to sort and pack everything, and we label all of the merchandise in inventory-controlled cartons and tubs destined for each specific stop that we load on the buses the morning of the tour.”
Basement space generously donated by the owner of Clough’s apartment building in Lakewood doubles as Santa’s North Coast workshop, where the elves assiduously pack and prep the year’s treasure trove of presents. After an early December fundraiser event that also celebrates Clough’s December 17 birthday, the elfin efforts get especially serious in the week leading up to the Tour of Good Cheer.
The tour itinerary
On the morning of the tour, Barons buses will pick up all of the volunteer gift-distributing elves in the parking lot of Lakewood City Hall. The police flashers will light up, and the Tour of Good Cheer will be on its way.
To consolidate some of the visits, this year the tour is testing a “Hub Concept,” with the first stop at St. Malachi Parish, where they will serve guests from the Malachi Center, Redeemer Crisis Center and Stella-Maris Cleveland.
Still groaning with gifts, the buses will next head east to a location in the Cleveland Police 4th District neighborhood; back downtown to Joseph & Mary’s Home in the Central neighborhood; to Ohio City’s Front Steps Services (formerly Transitional Housing); then to Procop House on the Near West Side, which is run by the Community Service Alliance that serves veterans.
The last stop will take the elves back east to the Community Assessment & Treatment Services on Broadway Avenue. The facility serves both men and women.
“Dick takes Christmas to people who are otherwise overlooked,” said Teresa Andreani, who’s known Clough since they worked together doing ad sales for a magazine 40 years ago and has participated in many tours. “He’s an extraordinary person not only for creating this whole event, but for inviting so many of us along on the ride. He has a big heart, and everything he puts into this is his life’s work, his legacy.”
How the TOGC first started rolling
The Spring of 1984 was rough for Clough after he got divorced. That year, the innately gregarious, anti-Grinch Clough knew he needed to find something positive to occupy his holidays. He purchased some stuffed animals, drove down to the now-defunct St. Vincent Charity Hospital and passed them out to patients and staff.
The following year, a friend asked if was going to do it again. He enlisted several other pals, chartered a party bus that GCRTA had at that time, and they took the newly branded Santa’s Express to St. Vincent Charity, MetroHealth Medical Center and Health Hill Hospital for Children, part of the Cleveland Clinic system.
Clough saw how the tour concept resonated with people, so each year the crew of elves grew by invitation and word of mouth. He continued to expand the tour locations. Until President Bill Clinton’s 1996 HIPPA legislation curtailed open access to hospitals.
At that point, nothing could stop Santa Clough from his appointed rounds. So he changed the focus to visiting churches or agencies that served the hungry, the impoverished, the afflicted.
“We got to the point where we are today, where we grew concerned about the plight of ‘the least among us,’” he said, referring to a Biblical quotation from the Gospel of Matthew.
“The first couple of years were more focused on us having fun than the people we were serving,” Andreani recalled. “I know it sounds corny, but it became like the true meaning of Christmas: going out, giving to others and doing that with friends.”
Truthfully, Clough has a wide reputation for being a giver. Currently, he is Board Chair of Cleveland Police Foundation and the Cleveland Police Athletic League, and he is a key member of the Green Ribbon Coalition focused on environmentally friendly lakefront development. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he also serves on the Advisory Board of DD214, a veterans’ newspaper.
What is Clough’s fondest memory, one that crystalizes his motivation and fulfillment for all of the time, talent and treasure he has given the Tour of Good Cheer?
He recalled: “Years ago, I was walking across Detroit Avenue around Mt. Carmel Church near W. 65th Street, and a guy came up to me, 25 or 30, a little down on his luck, and he said, ‘You show up on those buses with Christmas gifts at Mt. Carmel.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘When I was a kid, that was my Christmas.’ That made my day. You’re seeing all those kids, people coming through, and it’s magical.”
Recollections from some of the elder elves
Affectionately considered Clough’s first elf, Sherri Foxman has done it all to help her old pal with the tour for 40 years, but she’s slowing down a little bit due to age and some vision challenges at night.
“Dick still gives till it hurts because he’s so generous and works so hard all year, it’s unbelievable,” she said. “But now he has many other people come help him like little elves, and then we have people that just show up on the bus because they have fun and want to pass out the toys and clothing.”
Somewhere around 15 years ago, Foxman turned her friend Larry Gogolick onto the tour, and he’s been an energetic member ever since. In addition to coming along on the bus, Gogolick has donated a substantial amount of money to purchase roughly several thousand toys every year.
“I see the kids and their smiles and what it does for them, so it’s just an easy, feel-good situation,” Gogolick said. “For one night, these kids aren’t poor. They’re just like every other kid getting toys, and that’s important.”
Nine years ago, when he decided to retire from pickup basketball at 70, Gogolick started taking saxophone lessons. He now brings his sax so he can accompany Cats On Holiday on a few of the Christmas songs.
“Dick’s one of a kind,” he said. “He devotes so much of his time year-round to this event, and he’s such a personable and caring individual he’s an inspiration to everyone.”
Another double-decade volunteer elf, Jim Tabaczynski likes participating because it gives everyone involved something worthwhile to do around the holidays and a chance to interact with people in need in a joyful, positive way.
“Dick has a waiting list of people that want to go on the tour with him,” said Tabaczynski, owner of JPT Group in Cleveland. “People get into it because they recognize the good they’re doing, and it really completes a lot of people. They say it’s not the holidays without going on the tour.”
Gina Trebilcock, executive director, The Foundry, a rowing and sailing training facility in the Flats, considers Clough “a complete crusader” for the 41 years he’s invested into his Christmastime charitable endeavor. The Foundry serves as a popular collection location for donated items for the tour.
“It was just really eye-opening to come in, set up all of these tables with different items that were needful items,” she recalled of her experience she and her husband Michael, president of The Foundry had when they did the tour a few years ago. “Some were utilitarian basics, and some were gifts that they could give to others. We were moved by the charity and goodwill that was spread.”
Other long-time sponsors include the Cleveland Division of Police Bureau of Community Relations and Kathy Owad, owner of Grumpy’s Café in Tremont. This year, Clough will hold a potluck dinner there for volunteers later in December, where first-timers will receive their elf ears.
“I wouldn’t say the holidays are my favorite time of year, with the maddening crowds and the expectations, but this experience just touched my soul in a different way.” said Kavita Sherman, a retired communications professional, who has gone on the tour since 2015. “I love the people I’ve met and the whole community service aspect, and I’m only in this world for so long, so if I can do good, I choose to do good.”
Santa Clough’s not getting any younger, kids
“Dick’s old, I’m old and Larry’s old,” Foxman said. “But Dick has younger people who come during the week before the tour to pack everything up now. I still help find donations, clothing items, toys and with decorations and signage through my company, Party411 Events.”
Never fear though, Cleveland kids and people in need, Clough – a self-identified serial entrepreneur and idea engineer – plans to finalize his Loving Hands of Hope Foundation in time for the Tour of Good Cheer 2026.
“This year I’m really feeling it, and at 79 I’m not moving as fast as I used to for some reason,” joked Clough, who in November and December dealt with a lingering respiratory ailment. “I’m going to cut back on other things that I do, but I’ll keep doing the tour as long as I can because I get the most enjoyment from it. I have always loved Christmas, and I put a lot of time into the things for kids because it’s rewarding.”
For now, Santa Cloughs is looking forward to his 41st chartered sleigh ride with all of his elves. He also knows that as sure as snow will fall in Cleveland winters, come New Year’s Day, there will be a bag full of items donated by people in his building outside the basement workshop door for the next Tour of Good Cheer.
If you would like to become an elf, you can contribute online or mail a check payable to Tour of Good Cheer, Dick Clough, 12505 Edgewater, Drive, Lakewood, Ohio 44107. He is no longer receiving clothing donations for this year.
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