The Postal Service Delivers : ‘Santa’ Answers Pleas of the Needy

The letters come from everywhere. They may be written on brown wrapping paper or the back of an income tax form, but all are delivered to a jolly old gent named Santa Claus.

His helpers are U.S. Postal Service employees who handle the scribbled notes that youngsters, and some adults, mail this time of year.

“Some are funny and some are sad, even tragic,” said Vina Woodcock, manager of the claims and inquiry section at the main post office here.

“Take a look at this one,” she said recently of a post card from Chuck, a 10-year-old whose typing wasn’t as impressive as his plea.

“Mom is handicap and tryed to go to school, but our car got wrecked. . . . My step father is in jail and will be there for over antoher year. . . . He is not a real bad man, he did not have a job and they put him theer. Please can you help us have a Christmas?”

Woodcock said such appeals are carefully screened and if they are legitimate, “we do everything we can to assist them. People drop by the post office, read the letters and volunteer to help a less fortunate family.”

Postal workers also are generous, contributing money and gifts to the program that began 10 years ago and “has brought an overwhelming response from the public,” she said. “It also has caught the attention of adults who are on welfare and seek something for their kids or themselves.”

Of the 1,175 letters received so far this year, 222 were classified as needy cases, Woodcock said. “A few showed up as early as July and were turned over to relief agencies.”

Whenever Woodcock receives a note with a return address, she sends back a printed response, signed by Saint Nick, who talks about his elves and reindeer and about his forthcoming trip.

“Of course, the reply makes no promises that anything the child wants will be under the tree on Christmas Day,” she said. “That could cause problems.”

A 9-year-old submitted a list of 43 items, in his order of preference, and included the price of each.

An enterprising artist, who apparently couldn’t find any paper, used the back of a blank federal tax form to draw a bedbug.

“In case you didn’t know, that’s the name for a battery-operated game,” Woodcock explained.

Jennifer told Santa she would like to have the game, along with seven others, and added this postscript:

“If you can’t find all these toys, go to K mart.”