A Very Good Story With An Important Message

[warpedskydiver 0]

Secret Santa Reveals His Identity
Saturday, November 18, 2006 6:10 AM EST
The Associated Press
By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's been a long-held holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa?

But now, weak from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his belief in random kindness, Secret Santa has decided it's time to reveal his identity.

He is Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, Mo., who made his millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service.

His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

"It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,'" he said.

He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

"And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"

Stewart went to the bank that day and took out $200, then drove around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his "Christmas present to himself." He's hit the streets each December since.

While Stewart has also given money to other community causes in Kansas City and his hometown of Bruce, Miss., he offers the simple gifts of cash because it's something people don't have to "beg for, get in line for, or apply for."

That was a feeling he came to know in the early '70s when he was living out of his yellow Datsun 510. Hungry and tired, Stewart mustered the nerve to approach a woman at a church and ask for help.

The woman told him the person who could help was gone for the day, and Stewart would have to come back the next day.

"As I turned around, I knew I would never do that again," Stewart said.

Over the years, Stewart's giving as Secret Santa grew. He started a Web site. He allowed the news media to tag along, mostly because he wanted to hear about the people who received the money. Reporters had to agree to guard his identity and not name his company, which he still does not want revealed.

His entourage grew over the years, and he began traveling with special elves. People like the late Negro Leagues icon Buck O'Neil, who handed out hugs while Stewart doled out $100s. NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus will join Stewart this year in Chicago when Stewart hands out $100s in honor of O'Neil, the first African-American coach in the Major Leagues.

They'll give out $100,000 between Chicago and Kansas City. Four Secret Santas who Stewart "trained" will hand out an additional $65,000.

Doctors told Stewart in April that he had cancer of the esophagus and it had spread to his liver. He has been lucky, he says, to get into a clinical trial at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But the aggressive chemotherapy has stripped away his appetite and energy. He's lost about 100 pounds, but has held onto his white hair.

The treatment costs more than $16,000 a month, not including the cost of traveling to Houston every two weeks and staying there for five or six days. He now has two months off, but returns to treatment in February.

His insurance company won't cover the cost of the treatment, which has left him concerned about his finances and his family.

Now, his mission is bigger than handing out $100 bills. Stewart wants to speak to community groups about his devotion to kindness and to inspire others to donate their time and money.

"That's what we're here for," Stewart says, "to help other people out."

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If someone can't take enough time to read this I don't want to know them
It really choked me up to find out how he started all of this.

I have a friend who has been Santa complete with the real suit and belly and beard and has given of himself for over 35yrs.

He did it when he was ill, he did it when he had nothing.

He even did it when the locals decided he was unwanted for being a former felon.

Now he is sick and tired with about 20% of his heart still functioning and may even do Santa for a day or two this year if he can wear his suit without scaring the kids with his breathing difficulties.(his words)

What are you doing this Christmas?

Shopping?

Thinking about what you want for Christmas?

Or are you wondering what you can do?

Decide for yourselves.

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[Amazon 7]

I really like this .. I hate giving money to charities because of the HUGE amounts of overhead( read that Administrative costs... read that as executive salaries to administer the money)

Helping people directly impacts their lives... more people should try it.

If people can not do it financially.. they can do it with their time....volunteer to help a womens shelter..

volunteer to help a local food bank...
Volunteer to help the elderly... anything where your time and efforts can be directly seen in the faces of the people being helped.

[warpedskydiver 0]

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[skytash 0]

I love that story and agree about your views on charities.

At the Kenya boogie this year I met someone who works for Oxfam and in the past, I have given people presents from www.oxfamunwrapped.com. I asked him how that worked from his perspective and whether that money really gets spent on chickens, donkeys, water buckets and teachers etc.

He explained that it was very difficult for a project manager to get hold of oxfam unwrapped money as it could ONLY be spent on the specific items, no staff costs could be charged against the funds raised this way. He finds that very frustrating as he would love to get some of the objects which are given as unwrapped gifts, however has no way of paying for the logistics and staff to necessarily get it to the right people all the time. At times, it is easy enough because other projects are going the relevant places and packing in 100 mosquito nets can be done, some of the other things can be harder though.

Having had that conversation with him, I've decided that once again, people I love and want to give presents to will get oxfam unwrapped presents from me as they actually already have enough money to buy themselves the things they need.

I should look into Secret Santas in London though as that may also be a good thing to give myself
tash

Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

[warpedskydiver 0]

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[snowslider 0]

Yesterday I was at the grocery store and there was a homeless man out front just hanging out, not panhandling or anything. He was very dirty and I felt bad for him. Inside the store I thought about giving him some money, knowing that even twenty bucks would be alot to him. But alot of homeless people are in that situation because of mental illness and or addicion to drugs and alcohol and I didn't want to support that.
I have been driving around with a huge puffy coat because the heater in my car was broken, the day before I managed to fix it and now that I don't have to wear when I drive I decided that would be a good thing to pass on to him. The look on his face made it worth it, he didn't say much but I knew that it meant alot, and it gets cold here in Utah so this jacket that was $250 new will help him alot.

I think I'm going to volunter at a shelter on christmas since I dont' have any family here.
I always said if I was rich I would help people that needed and desrved it. It feels great to make a difference.