Special Santa program provides Christmas for more than 3,000 Valley children

WASILLA — Christmas will be a bit happier for more than 3,000 Valley children who will find themselves on Santa’s “nice” list this year.

As the Jolly Old Elf’s CEO (that’s Chief Elf Organizer) in the Valley, Mari Jo Parks is busy gathering the wish lists of local children, and checking them twice. It’s a task she’s honed to efficient perfection over her years as head of the nonprofit Special Santa program.

“It’s hard to grasp it, it really is,” she said about the program’s growth from serving 90 kids in 1997 to more than 3,400 last year. “It’s like putting all of the high schools together. Holy cow, that’s a lot of kids.”

So are the 18,000 children who have had gifts to unwrap on Christmas Day during the past 15 years. Special Santa works much like Kris Kringle’s North Pole home office, where families sign up and provide volunteers with wish lists their children make. Along with the usual requests for video games, dolls and Legos, there are times when children put the season into perspective, Parks said.

Like last year, when a teenager’s hope for the holidays hit an emotional nerve with Special Santa organizers, Parks said.

“We had a girl who was 17 who asked for the heating for her home for that winter,” she said. “She got it. It was pretty incredible. We really try to help kids who think of others. She was thinking of her family rather than herself.”

This year, one of the program’s main elves, Sue Hightower, was touched by the request of one young man.

“This one really got to me because most 14- and 15-year-old boys are not very sentimental,” she said. “The only thing this boy asked for on his part of the wish list was a Christmas tree, lights and decorations.”

Last year, Parks was contacted regarding a Valley family that had a house fire two days after Christmas. The family came to Special Santa to pick through what was left.

“One of the things that will forever touch my heart is this little girl found this little box,” Parks said. “It wasn’t much of anything. She said, ‘Look, mom, this is just like the one I had.’ How wonderful we could replace something like that.”

Providing a merry Christmas for thousands of children a year, Parks hears her fair share of stories about how the generosity of Special Santa has affected local families. For the families, though, that effort is sincerely appreciated, said Cindy Dodd of Palmer.

Dodd is out of work and her husband has been laid off, making the holidays a tough time for them and their three girls, ages 14, 12 and 10, she said.

“This is such a wonderful blessing for families,” said Dodd, adding she first learned about Special Santa last year. “This year, money’s short again, unfortunately. It’s wonderful to see them open their gifts, and they actually get what they wanted. I am so grateful there are people who care enough to do this, because they would not have received very much this year. This means a lot. As a parent, it makes me really happy. I wish I could do it myself. Unfortunately, I can’t, but it fills me with a lot of joy to see them open their presents on Christmas.”

On Friday, Colony Middle School teacher Heather Beard was dropping off boxes of presents her students bought and wrapped for five children.

“We spoiled them,” Beard said.

Students raised about $900 and learned a valuable lesson about giving, she said.

“We just went to the store and had a blast,” she said. “I’m getting goose bumps talking about it, because we were shopping and they were very good at picking out presents that were age-appropriate. They got so excited. To hear them say, ‘These kids are going to have such a good Christmas’ was so nice to hear.”

After parents sign up for the program and children write out their wish lists, volunteers — an estimated more than 500 this year — shop and gather donations to put together “wish bags” for each child, Parks said. Parents then pick up the bags for a $1 donation for each child.

“The magic of this program is that in January, we start with nothing, and the Mat-Su Valley puts together gifts for over 3,000 kids by Christmas Day,” she said. “It’s an amazing community. People care about one another much more than you’d think.”

While the Special Santa workshop at 720 N. Shoreline Drive off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway is a model of yuletide efficiency, Special Santa is hurting going into the final week before Christmas, Parks said.

“We need donations desperately. We probably have 1,500 kids we haven’t got things for yet,” she said. “We are almost wiped out.”

Anyone wanting to help Special Santa this year can drop off new, unwrapped toys and gifts at the workshop or visit specialsanta.org for information on how do donate.

While the sprit of giving is strong with the Chief Elf Organizer and her army of elves, there are some gifts beyond even Special Santa’s ability to pull off, Parks said. “We had one child who wrote, ‘I just want my mom and dad back together.’ That was a heart-break, couldn’t pull that one off.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.