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The elves of Randolph who make Globe Santa possible
This season, 16,308 letters were delivered. Every single one of them were read and processed by a team of six women.
RANDOLPH — At first glance it would seen to be a drab, nondescript office space in an industrial building servicing local delivery of the Globe’s print edition.
But it’s also the heartbeat of Globe Santa, and a major lifeline for thousands of families in Greater Boston facing dire situations. It’s where heartbreak gets a hearing, and a helping hand.
It’s where the hard work gets done. It’s where this season, 16,308 letters were delivered and every single one of them read and processed by a team of six women, who in not just a storybook sense, are Globe Santa’s elves.
The letters come fromparents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, guardians, and in one case this year, a small child’s school teacher, advocating for the family to get help. Some letters come directly from children. One parent who apparently didn’t have a postage stamp was so desperate to get her form to its destination she taped two quarters to the envelope. The post office delivered it anyway,
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The letters ask Globe Santa for gift assistance — toys, books, and games from the Globe’s 69-year-old charity, a signature program of the Boston Globe Foundation. They’re written on a bureaucratic green form provided by the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance, after each family’s financial need has been verified by a social service agency.
At the top it says: “Please write a letter to Globe Santa telling us why you need help.”
“We cry. We literally cry,” says Kathy Collins, who has been a letter-reader for 12 years. “There are tears shed in that room.”
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Many of the letters are wrenching to read. Many are inspiring. And many of them are instructive, direct evidence that the commonly held narrative — that Americans can simply will themselves out of poverty if they just work at it hard enough — does not always hold up.
I am a 75-year-old great-grandmother raising her great grandchild. I have recently gone back to school @ Bridgewater State to finish my B.S. degree. I have been working part time during the school year for the past five years. I have also lost many supports given by Department of Children and Families.
Both my boys are autistic. I am a cancer patient, single mom and struggling to make ends meet. I just left the hospital from my 2nd round of chemo, and that’s why this is late.
I have applied to at least 100 different [jobs] and have yet to be called.
The apartment building where we lived burned to the ground. It doesn’t exist anymore, and everything we had perished.
I am 12 years old. My mom doesn’t have enough money to buy me gifts for the holidays. I ask Santa, if possible, to have a pair of shoes on my feet, so my feet doesn’t get dirty. Also clothes for the winter, if I get cold. If I could squeeze in a toy, so I can have something to play with my brother. GOD BLESS EVERYONE!
“We appreciate doing this more and more as the years go one,” says family request manager Tammy McFarland, who oversees the family enrollment process and is in her 15th year with Globe Santa. “Everyone here has compassionate hearts. It is meaningful to us as well as to the people writing us.”
The team includes Paola Dionisio, a lab instructor at UMass Boston who translates letters written in Spanish and Portuguese, and Linda Ryan, who stays on when toys are being delivered to support families concerned about the status of their gift box.
One day this month, everyone pitched in to sort and pack up a mountain of warm winter clothing for children that had been collected by Rockland Recovery Treatment Centers, a 12-step-based outpatient facility for substance use disorder. It also operates a mental health outpatient facility.
Founder and chief executive Eddie McGrath said the clothes were collected at each facility, having been donated by employees. “I do this because I was on the receiving end of Globe Santa as a young child,” he said. “Both my parents struggled with substance abuse and I was raised by my grandmother. One of Rockland Recovery’s core values is philanthropy and giving back to the community.”
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“I’d say the theme of 99.9 percent of letters is true heartfelt gratitude,” Kathy Collins said.
“I feel so incredibly blessed to have the “Elves” help me bring Christmas joy to my children on Christmas morning through this amazing program,” wrote a mother of two children, ages 8 and 10. “Merry Christmas to All the Elves at Globe Santa.”
For 69 years Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has provided gifts to children in need at holiday time. Please consider giving by phone, mail, or online at globesanta.org.
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