OXNARD : 2 Students Play Santa for Needy

Two Oxnard high school students have found a way to play Santa Claus to about 30 needy area children while fulfilling a school requirement.

Maria and Christopher Emerson asked two U.S. post offices for letters addressed to Santa Claus and then enlisted about two dozen Santa Clara High School classmates to help fill the children’s wish list.

“We had a community service requirement, and I didn’t want to do anything that involved labor,” said Christopher, 18, a senior.

Fellow students in the junior Rotary Club Interact, also needing to fill community service requirements, spent about $10 apiece in addition to 20 hours each shopping and wrapping the gifts.

“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and teddy bears were the most requested items,” said 16-year-old Maria, a junior.

Although the idea occurred to the siblings in August, the work didn’t begin until last week, because they had to wait for the letters. “The timing has been hectic,” Christopher said.

The Emersons today plan to prepare the gifts for mailing, which the post office has agreed to do for free.

“I’ll probably deliver some myself,” Ventura Postal Supervisor Tom Hellmuth said. Hellmuth provided about 15 letters that he believed are from needy children.

“I know the neighborhoods,” Hellmuth said in determining which letters to pass on. “You can tell the ones that are needy.”

The other letters were supplied by the Van Nuys post office.