It's "Letters to Santa" Time Again !!!

[NickDG 23]

Hi All,

First off thanks to all who participated in adopting letters needy children wrote to Santa Claus in the past. I know it’s a bit early yet but due to the prevailing economic conditions this year promises a larger amount of letters than ever.

The way this works is you can visit certain participating U.S. Post Offices, fill out a form, and get up to ten “Dear Santa” letters pre-screened by Post Office personal. You can chose to respond to none, one, or all the letters you receive. Typical letters ask for toys, clothing, shoes, and school supplies. And some of these letters will simply break your heart. And not all the letters are from children either. Several I saw this year are from single Mothers (and some Dads) who are at the end of their rope.

I’m asking that you drop the price of a single jump ticket (two tickets for you tightwads at Lodi, LOL) on at least one of these kids who will otherwise get little or nothing this Christmas. Twenty dollars spent at a "Dollar Store" could easily buy school supplies for several of these children.

Some letters are unanswerable like one letter from a little girl who simply asked Santa for a Mother. “Not just for me,” she wrote, “but for my daddy, brother and granny ... my daddy works so hard and then he comes home to cook and clean and it should be easier.” The child then drew a 5-cent “stamp” on the envelope before dropping it in the mailbox.

(See more letters in the below attachments.)

Every Post Office in the country gets these letters addressed to Santa Claus at the North Pole, but due to budget restraints not every Post Office participates in the program. Here’s the list of the ones that do:

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/holiday/santalist.htm?from=2009holidaypressroom_rightnav&page=ParticList

So please help if you can. No child who believes in Santa Claus should have to wake up Christmas morning without a present to open . . .

NickD

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[ifall 0]

Thanks for posting that link, I agree with you 100%. Looks like there is one participating in Cincy fairly close to me.

Cheers!

[Ketia0 0]

Thanks for posting that Nick... There isnt one anywhere in the state of Texas.

Is there a way that I can get my local post office to join... Its not like our post office is lacking any funds.

"In this game you can't predict the future. You just have to play the odds. "-JohnMitchell

[NickDG 23]

The Letters to Santa program was unfortunately scaled back in 2009 after a registered sex offender was found to be in possession of some of the kid's letters in Maryland.

Now in order to get the letters they have to be first opened by Post Office employees and the last names and addresses of the children must be blacked out. Then a code is attached to the letter and that's how you respond to it. You also have to show an ID to participate and presumably your name is run through some type of criminal database. All that is a time consuming and costly process for individual Post Offices so it's up to each branch manager if they participate or not. So I'd say lobbying your local Post Office is your only avenue.

Another sister program, also suspended due to the above incident, was the one where letters were forwarded to the town of North Pole, Alaska. They were then answered by volunteers and their replies came back with the famous North Pole postmark. That program had been going on since 1954.

I spoke with my local Postmaster last year and was told they don't participate mainly due to the cost involved. But for me the real truth is the Postal Service, like the FAA and the NPS, are big bloated bureaucracies sagging under the weight of their own inefficiencies. But the saddest part is it's the kids who suffer.

NickD

[skyrider 0]

Sounds like a great idea, I had to go threw the same check when I was coaching baseball, that part is no big deal!

What a great way to help some children....

[skyrider 0]

Coem to think of it, I think when people apply for passports, it is the same check..

[sxc 0]

I just called the post office near me that is on that list. They don't know if they are going to participate or not as it gets to be a lot of work.

So I volunteered - to help out - with postage or toys or santa letter writing or whatever!!

[NickDG 23]

Thanks ifall and sxc, you guys rock !!!

NickD