Secret Santa program goes digital: a new way to adopt families in Sonoma County

Children aren’t the only ones who write letters to Santa Claus. For nearly 30 years, people of all ages in need of extra help have asked Santa to bring magic into their lives through a local nonprofit organization.

The Secret Santa program, which provides gifts and holiday cheer to those less fortunate in Sonoma County, has steadily grown in the last few years, said program coordinator Buffy Welch. But its biggest victory this year has been the debut of its new website, which it hopes will expand the number of people it serves.

Community members looking to help are now able to visit the organization’s website and read dozens of letters written by people from across Sonoma County. The feature allows donors to quickly find individuals whose needs resonate, and share links with people outside the area.

“It was a five-year volunteer effort to put our letters and hearts online to get more tech savvy,” Welch said. “This has also helped speed our process of tracking donated gifts.”

Welch and her team of volunteers began accepting letters in early September and will work to deliver gifts well into the new year, she said. Donors are asked to drop-off gifts by Dec. 19.

The Secret Santa program ?has already received more than ?18,000 adopt-a-heart requests from people needing help this year, an increase of a thousand from last year’s total, and more are expected in the coming days, Welch said.

Most letters are from parents asking for new clothes or for toys for their children.

Some are from cancer patients, wishing for gift cards to keep their refrigerators full during the holidays.

Others are from friends or neighbors, reaching out on behalf of others who are in need.

But families receiving gifts are not the only ones benefiting from the program, Welch said.

Secret Santa has also been a place of healing, said Mary Lee Jones, who has volunteered with the local program for 25 years.

An anonymous donor gave 58 new bikes to Secret Santa this year for children in need. But these are not regular bikes. Each one is in honor of a person who was killed in the October 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

“This man spent two years trying to figure out how to deal with the pain of losing his own son and at the end of those years Las Vegas happened,” Jones said. “He came up with this plan to give bikes in the name of each of those victims, both to help himself heal and for those to be remembered.”

The Secret Santa program - in partnership with the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County, KZST radio and Freidman’s Home Improvement - amasses over 7,000 volunteer hours and helps close to 2,000 families by donating a total of 34,000 gifts each year, Welch said.

Judy Schulz has been volunteering with Secret Santa for 10 years. She has worked in every department, but said her favorite is participating in school outreach.

Schulz works with students across the county to create paper hearts that are later delivered to local businesses that participate in the gift-sharing program.

“To see the faces of these students as they realize they are giving back to their communities and are connecting with what’s happening outside of their school is why I do it,” Schulz said.

Jones spends most of her time juggling logistics, including co-?managing nearly 125 sponsors.

Sponsorships offer businesses a chance to have a tree in their offices that come with a handful of paper heart ornaments. Attached to each ornament is a name with a personal description of what they need.

Jones also works with local agencies, like the YMCA and Catholic Charities, that provide hearts from people within their own network.

“Our numbers have gotten huge over the years and it is amazing to see that we are all interconnected in this work,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else this time of year.”

For those interested in reading letters or participating in the program, visit secretsantanow.org.