Despite fewer donations, Secret Santa fulfilling 21,000 wishes in Sonoma County

One by one, parents from Sonoma County families in need trickled into the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County to pick up a bag of donated gifts they made a wish for in a letter to Santa Claus.

Approximately 1,300 families will stop by the Santa Rosa office during the holiday season to pick up clothing and toys for their children, seeing their wishes fulfilled.

The Secret Santa program provided over 35,200 gifts in 2018 to local residents that were dealing with various hardships and needed a little help during the holidays. This year the program will respond ?to requests from ?21,000 different individuals of all ages, the majority of which were placed on red hearts which have been hanging from Christmas trees at 225 different businesses countywide.

The typical heart asks for small items such as clothing or toys, according to program director Buffy Welch, but the letters posted on the Secret Santa website are filled with bigger asks from the community. In total, Welch expects the program will again give out more than 35,000 gifts this year.

For Jennifer Sanchez of Santa Rosa and her three sons, Friday’s trip to the volunteer center means her family will be able to put some gifts under the Christmas tree after a trying few months that often left her husband without work.

“(The Kincade fire and recent rain) kept my husband away from his job in the fields, and that has been challenging for our family this year,” Sanchez said in Spanish with her youngest son beside her. “We are grateful for this because our children will be happy during the holidays.”

Program organizers believe the fire has affected Secret Santa both by increasing the level of need in the community, and stifling the amount of contributions they typically receive.

The number of hearts that were adopted this year are “considerably down” compared to previous years, Welch said, forcing the organization to lean more on its monetary donations.

Still, Welch said they are on target to fill all of the unfulfilled wishes, hearts and letters they received thanks to the more than $200,000 raised by the annual Secret Santa Marathon Wednesday at Montgomery Village Shopping Center.

“Fires just put our whole community behind,” Welch said. “It also put people who have a little bit of savings and are traditionally people who would probably help had unforeseen expenses themselves. The donation has been a little bit slower … but we’re on target.”

Sonoma County’s Secret Santa program is the outgrowth of the giving tree initiative that began 30 years ago, Welch said. The current partnership with KZST radio and Friedman’s Home Improvement was formed seven years ago when Bill Friedman was moved by the letters from listeners in need that were read aloud on the radio, she said.

Since then, the program has transformed into a symbol for the region’s generosity, amassing roughly 1,000 volunteers who put in 7,000 total hours between October and December, Welch said.

More than 120 Sonoma County nonprofits are tasked with distributing the gifts from residents who adopted a heart. The program is now providing tracking information that shares updates so community members can follow the gift all the way to its recipient, said Lily Rego, a director for Sonoma County.

“It can be a little anti-?climactic dropping a gift off in an office, she said. “This helps adopters feel more involved.”

On Friday, cars lined the alleyway of a downtown Santa Rosa building that program officials have dubbed the North Pole. Over the past three weeks, the vacant basement has become home to the main donation center, stocked full of the thousands of items struggling Sonoma County residents had requested.

Dozens of volunteers hurriedly wrapped gifts in the back while others filled shopping carts for nonprofit workers to pile into their car. Empty space was hard to come by.

Tiffani Montgomery of Sonoma 4C’s child care and Dallas Munger of the Child Parent Institute, which asked for donations of art supplies for children who have suffered trauma, stood near the loading area in Christmas sweaters soaking in the frantic scene.

“Honestly, our kids end up with better art supplies than I ever had,” Munger said with a laugh. “This makes such a profound difference in this community.”

You can reach Staff Writer Yousef Baig at 707-521-5390 or yousef.baig@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @YousefBaig.