Santa Still Needs A Hand

Sylvia Kelderman (center) is one of the many volunteers helping to coordinate with Santa this Christmas Season.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The countdown to Christmas is underway, and Santa is very busy. The rush of letters can even be too much for all the high tech gadgets and elf power of the North Pole.

With so many boys and girls sending in letters, it’s not that uncommon for the ‘big guy’ to reach out for some help. So residents at Homestead Assisted Living in Oskaloosa offered to help out by being postal workers of sort.

This past week, residents got to work, categorizing the wish lists, and stuffing the envelopes for return to kids, and it was the first year the residents at Homestead assisted the North Pole.

Sylvia Kelderman who had helped Santa in the past, helped to bring the program to Homestead. Kelderman hosted the mail box near her home for Santa, to help make it easier for kids to get their letters to Santa.

This year, Kelderman said it made perfect sense to ask her friends at Homestead to help out. Kelderman signed up to help, remembering when she was younger that a Santa mailbox used to be in her neighborhood. Another Santa worker helped to build the mailbox, and Kelderman hosted the box for Santa.

So far this year, nearly 30 letters have found their way into the box.

American Girl Dolls and accessories, iPhones, stuffed animals, TV’s and craft sets, dirt bikes, to name just a few items that came to the attention of Santa.

One young Oskaloosa child asked Santa to “Please bring happiness and presents to kids that aren’t as lucky as me. Thank you for making kids all over the world so happy at Christmas.”

Santa never tells early what he is handing out for presents, but he does talk about how good the children have been during the year, and Santa will then note some of those good behaviors he looks for, like being respectful, kind, and listening to their parents.

Santa told those helpers to pass along that Rudolph is looking forward to guiding the sleigh this year, “and my reindeer are excited to go this Christmas Eve.”