santa who

Santa Claus Girls in its 100th year
Saturday, December 01, 2007By Matt Vande BunteThe Grand Rapids Press
Ask around if the Santa Claus Girls know Adriana VanDoorn, and looks of uncertainty register on their faces. Then, somebody's eyes light up and out comes the story.

She is the original Santa Claus Girl, who started the charity in 1908 to make sure area children get a gift on Christmas. Although the name no longer rings a bell with many volunteers of the charity -- now in its 100th year -- today's helpers have much in common with the founder.

"I want to make sure that all children are remembered, not forgotten," said Ardis Hawley, 87, who has volunteered for the past 25 years. "Today I see more children that need to know that someone cares for them."

Although the Santa Claus Girls operation has changed in the past century, the original heart has kept beating for the Press-sponsored charity, which raises money to buy gifts for needy Kent County children ages 6 months to 12 years.

The scale has increased -- from $85 that bought 150 gifts in 1908 to more than 11,000 gifts last year and a $165,000 fundraising goal this season -- but the concept has stayed the same. Toys, clothing and candy, and a love that embodies the spirit of Christmas, get packaged into every gift.

Then a pastor's assistant at Park Congregational Church, VanDoorn was alerted by a Grand Rapids Herald reporter to a story about a Philadelphia woman who tried to play Santa Claus for needy children.

She sought out Herald editor Arthur H. Vandenberg, who later became a U.S. senator, and he offered the publicity to get the Santa Claus Girls started. VanDoorn organized 10 Sunday school teachers to run the operation that first year, and by the 1930s more than 10,000 children were getting presents each Christmas.

"As a little girl I always wanted to be able to answer the letters that were written to Santa Claus," VanDoorn told a Herald reporter in 1948. "Merchants and business people gave us help from the very beginning. I have always felt that in Grand Rapids people knew how to put 'goodwill to men' in practice."

Hawley, from Comstock Park, learned that lesson early in life when her grandmother made dolls for the Santa Claus Girls during the Depression.

"The people who come in (to volunteer) feel like what they are doing is worthwhile. They know they are caring for children," Hawley said. "It isn't just the people who work here. It's all of those people who knit hats and mittens" and donate money.

Starting in the 1980s, Hawley served as the charity's vice president for 16 years under the leadership of Phyllis Scanlon. Back then, before the charity adopted computers, the Santa Claus Girls wrote gift requests by hand. They packaged presents with string instead of Scotch tape.

And sometimes they worked in buildings that lacked heat, so they cut the fingertips out of their gloves to wrap the gifts.

"I loved it. I loved what I did," said Scanlon, 82, who still works the Santa Claus Girls phones one day a week. She had just taken a call from a mother of four children, ages 1 to 6, whose father deserted the family last year.

"Grand Rapids has grown and we have grown right along with it."

But for all the changes over the years, Adriana VanDoorn's goal of giving Christmas presents to needy children has been constant.

"There was a knock on the door," longtime volunteer Bonnie Kroon recalled of her own childhood encounter with the Santa Claus Girls in 1930s. "We were shooed out of the room.

"The next morning we had a present under the tree. We wouldn't have had a Christmas if it hadn't been for the Santa Claus Girls."
Even Santa has to worry about children's privacy these days.

With over a million letters to St. Nick going to Canada Post every year, the security of all those kids' names and addresses is taken very seriously, says spokesman Teresa Williams.

"In the spirit of Christmas, we want to make sure the children are secure and the parents have the confidence of knowing their child's information is not going anywhere else."

Last year, the United States Postal Service began a policy that requires a volunteer or corporation that wants to help reply to letters to Santa to not only pick up the letters in person, but also sign a clause waiving all liabilities for the postal service.

The move was done over security and legal concerns, although no problem has ever been reported.

Canada Post doesn't have the same requirements because its postal elves operate differently.

In the Great White North, the only people besides Santa handling the letters are Canada Post employees volunteering their time.

"We use only our employees to maintain a certain level of control," said Williams.

She says in the past there have been inappropriate responses to kids. Canada Post wants to avoid that.

So by using only in-house volunteers, it provides an extra level of control and responsibility. All employees are screened prior to being hired, said Williams.

Letters are destroyed after they have been replied to, said Williams, to prevent the names and addresses from getting into other people's hands. E-mails to Santa are also not stored.

"As a parent, we need to be very careful of our children's names and addresses and in whose hands they're going to," said Williams.

This year, Canada Post expects to handle over a million letters to Santa from around the world, all of which will get replies. Thousands of Canada Post employees volunteer their off-duty time to help Santa with that much mail.

"We have a number of postal elves assigned to helping Santa out with his letters. In some cases, they may be sorting his mail or making sure the responses are in the appropriate language."

Children wanting to send an e-mail to Santa can do so from canadapost.ca/santascorner or send a traditional letter to Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada.

Return addresses are required if the child wants a reply because while Santa may know where they live, posties don't.