At the James A. Farley Post Office in New York, volunteers read letters as part of Operation Santa Claus, a program that enables postal employees, the general public and corporations to respond to letters written to Santa by needy families.
DECATUR, Ga. (MarketWatch) — Every December, the U.S. Postal Service receives millions of letters to Santa, and in a program called Operation Santa Claus, postal workers attempt to sort out the requests from needy children so that good Samaritans(乐善好施者) can purchase gifts to make wishes come true.
This year, many of those notes to Saint Nick are coming not only from children but struggling parents and grandparents, hit hard by a troubled economy and unemployment, said Peter Fontana, head elf at Operation Santa’s New York location at the city’s main post office in the James A. Farley building.
Employees at the James A. Farley Post Office in New York help customers process responses to letters written to Santa Claus. Operation Santa Claus is a program that lets postal workers, the general public and companies respond to letters written to Santa Claus by needy families.
Moms and grandmas write to lament(表达悲伤) that they cannot afford even the basics for their children and grandchildren — winter coats, hats and gloves, blankets or a turkey for a holiday dinner, he said.
“There’s more than one with the same theme,” said Fontana, who is starting his 16th season with Operation Santa. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
In 2010, New York’s Operation Santa alone received a record 1 million letters, double the number received in 2009, and coordinated approximately 40,000 responses to children in need, said Darleen Reid, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman.
One letter to Santa this year came from Victoria, a grandmother who is recovering from heart surgery. She asks for clothes, toys and a “little radio” for Nisa Marie, her 6-year-old granddaughter. Nisa’s mother has been unemployed for two-and-a-half years.
“This might be a good Christmas; maybe the worst Christmas ever,” Victoria wrote. “She applies, applies and applies and never gets hired anywhere.”
LaTanya, another Santa letter-writer, states that she is in her 20s, expecting a baby in early January and living in a shelter. All she wants is “clothes for me and I need clothes and accessories for a newborn girl.”