Santa Cop delivers hot meals, gifts to 110 Valley seniors

PALMER — Another Christmas went off without a hitch for the Santa Cop program.

Investigator Donna Anthony with the Palmer Police Department, who heads up the yearly effort to bring holiday cheer to seniors who need it, said the gratitude coming from seniors was just as she remembered it.

“It was the first time I’ve got to deliver in probably four years,” Anthony said.

As it has most years, Santa Cop grew again this year to include communities from Palmer to Talkeetna. Playing the role of Santa were Alaska State Troopers, Houston, Palmer and Wasilla police officers, Mat-Su Borough firefighters and medics and a pair of Anchorage police officers.

“We had Houston Police Department and they were great, brought in all of their volunteers,” Anthony said.

She said the Anchorage officers live in the Valley and seemed to think some of their commuting colleagues might want to sign up next year. The military also wants to get in on the act and will likely be incorporated next year. Really, anyone with a uniform is welcome, she said. But, she said, that uniform is important for the seniors’ piece of mind.

“I want them to feel safe when they open the door — it’s a firefighter, police, EMS,” Anthony said.

All told, the program delivered a hot meal and gifts to 110 seniors. Reports from the field as of Monday ran the gamut from seniors who wouldn’t let anyone inside or get out of bed to long conversations with people who don’t get many visitors.

Central Mat-Su firefighter Rich Boothby sent Anthony a note about a senior in need of a wheelchair ramp.

“There is no ramp into the house, only steps so she cannot get out of the house on her own,” Boothby wrote.

Mary Lou Patience, a criminal justice technician with the troopers’ Mat-Su Drug Unit, sent a note about a senior whose furnace looked like it hadn’t been cleaned or serviced in 10 years.

“This was an amazing experience for me this year, even better than years past! I believe my emotions really surfaced when I was wishing I could spend time with my own older relatives who live out of state,” she wrote.

Anthony said Santa Cop is an odd kind of charity in that, although the various deliveries include presents, it’s not really targeting seniors who need material things.

“This isn’t for people who are needing items. It’s just for people who are alone,” Anthony said. Which is why some of the deliveries were made at well-maintained homes of seniors who were doing OK financially, she said.

But being firefighters and cops, the various Santas are prone to notice things like dirty furnaces and missing wheelchair ramps. That sort of low-key, impromptu inspection of life safety issues has always been a part of the program, Anthony said.

“One lady had a fire detector I guess that kept going off and she thought it was broke so she took it down,” she said.

And the program often follows up to correct such issues, Anthony said. Like the woman who needed smoke detectors, she will have some very soon, if she doesn’t already. Speaking Monday, Anthony said, there was a lot of catching up to do on the weekend’s events.

“I got e-mails I haven’t even read yet,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.