'Smiley' & Santa unite for kids
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Recently passed veteran “Smiley” Rivera would have been overjoyed, in his element, among the kids at the Danielson Veterans Coffeehouse’s Breakfast With Santa event.
The coffeehouse decided that given Rivera’s love of children, naming the Breakfast With Santa after him was the best way to honor him.
Kids attending the breakfast packed the community room at the Municipal Complex. A reindeer and the Grinch held sway for a while with the kids but the room exploded with excitement when Santa and his elf came in. 
Santa talked to each child and had a special gift for each one. 
Rivera’s family, looking on, probably felt Ismael “Smiley” Rivera was there in spirit.
“He would be so honored with this. He would be eating this up.”
The family brought coloring books for all the kids in attendance Dec. 6.
All the family members agreed that Smiley and his wife adored children. Son Wayne Rivera said his mom and dad had five children and a foster child and they were foster parents their entire lives. And now there are grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Why do they think he liked kids so much? Wayne Rivera said, “Well, he was one of 18 kids himself.” 
Children were definitely important to Smiley and his wife. Family members said when they cleaned out the house they found four cribs in the basement. 
Mrs. Rivera loved kids and whenever anyone had a baby she brought something over to them “even if she didn’t know who they were. They were a neighbor down the street; she’d bring a gift over. She’d just knock on the door and say ‘I see you had a baby.’ And give them a gift.”
Rivera, a U.S. Army veteran, was one of the charter members of the Danielson Veterans Coffeehouse, according to coffeehouse president Fred Ruhlemann. “This (breakfast) is the perfect way to honor his memory,” Ruhlemann said.
Bet Santa felt Smiley there.

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