WNY Community Meets Kente Claus, the 2023 Tim Hortons Kindness Ambassador

Dewitt Lee, III / Kente Claus, Kindness Ambassador

Buffalo Native, Dewitt Lee, III, who has served the community for seven years as Kente Claus, an Afro-Caribbean counterpart to Santa Claus has been selected as the Tim Hortons 2023 Kindness Ambassador and is featured in a global marketing campaign called Kindness.

This amazing ad campaign has provoked the true spirit of the season in people from all walks of life. The commercial can be seen at: www.timhortons.ca/kindess as well as on the Tim Hortons instagram and youtube pages.

Dewitt Lee, III is a staple in the WNY community as he has been a part of the African American Heritage Corridor’s soulful Christmas for several years. He now is a global face of a new more diverse and colorful Christmas for Tim Hortons.

As Kente Claus, DeWitt fuses Christmas joy, African proverbs, Caribbean folklore, and Biblical references to the original Christmas story that spans Ghana, Beth-lehem to Egypt. He assumes the role as the chief joy distribution officer for the Claus Corporation whose job it is to send toys to children in the Caribbean and Africa - which he does, each year.

DeWitt’s social media channels(@kenteclaus) is full of videos of his travels across the USA and Canada to collect toys to send overseas. He has an annual award called the Kente Claus ImagiNation Awards which recognizes Black authors, toy manufacturers, and youth under 16 years old who have displayed great signs of compassion and or creativity. Dewitt spends his time working on his charity, St. Brian Clothiers, which provides free suits and men’s dress clothing to those in need. He is a volunteer chairman and board member of many community organizations that address poverty and racial disparities with opportunity, inclusion and collaboration.