A Close- Up Look At People Who Matter : Letters Miss Pole, Land at Next Best Place

A boy in Reseda wanted a father, so he wrote Santa Claus.

It was one of many letters to St. Nick that flood the Santa Clarita office of Stacia Crane, manager of consumer affairs for the Van Nuys District of the U.S. Postal Service.

Crane and Cia Sauro, a postal complaint investigator, run the local Operation Santa Claus, a volunteer effort between the post office and the community that has been answering letters to Santa Claus since 1912.

Some letters Crane can do little about. An East Valley boy wrote this year to say he had lost his dog. Crane checked the local animal shelters without success. Another came from a little girl who wanted parents that didn’t hit her. But without an address on the envelope, Crane could do nothing.

But Crane and Sauro have arranged invitations to Dodger Stadium, exercise help from Richard Simmons and tickets to Disneyland for needy children. Crane has delivered armloads of presents anonymously on Christmas Eve, telling dubious parents she was only “Santa’s helper.” She once sent a package of treats for a family dog who was the subject of a Santa letter.

Last week, the letters were coming in at a rate of 300 a day.

“We’re down to the wire here, trying to make sure that everyone gets taken care of,” Crane said. About 200 volunteers have adopted letters--some taking as many as 10 at a time--but more people are needed to make sure that each child at least gets a letter back from Santa.

Jenice Vance of Tujunga was a first-time volunteer who bought clothes, a toy pickup truck and a Nerf rocket launcher for a 7-year-old Lancaster boy. Her brother-in-law who works in Lancaster will make the delivery this week.

“I have a job and some security, and I wanted to help those who don’t have as much,” Vance said.

Jodi Zucker of Santa Clarita was touched by the letter from the fatherless Reseda boy. “He sounded like a very lonely child,” said Zucker, another first-time volunteer.

So, she signed him up at a local YMCA, hoping that he would find the guidance and friendship he needed there. Then, she went to a toy store to get him a Michael Jordan T-shirt, a hat, a small learning computer and some gifts for his siblings. But when she came out of the store, her car was missing.

Zucker was later told by police that it had been stolen by a pair of juveniles who used it on a brief crime spree in the West Valley before crashing it.

“If someone had helped these children before they really got in trouble, then these things wouldn’t have happened,” said Zucker, who got a new car--ordered months ago--a few days after the incident. “I feel that maybe with this little boy that I’m helping, maybe this will turn him in the right direction.”

The incident has not dampened her holiday spirit. She still mailed the package of presents to the family anonymously.

“It felt great,” said Zucker. “I felt like I accomplished what I set out to accomplish.”

As for Crane, she gets a lot out of being one of Santa’s helpers.

“I don’t have a family,” Crane said. “But this is what makes Christmas really fulfilling. For me, it makes me realize what Christmas is all about.”

To volunteer with Operation Santa Claus, call (818) 718-0148.

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please send suggestions on prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338.