Postman sees that letters to Santa get answers
John Dick has overseen special elves committee for about 14 years
Letters to Santa that get delivered to the Royal Oak post office ultimately end up in the hands of John Dick, a postal carrier who oversees a special elves committee.
Dick volunteers with about 15 others to ensure that children, and sometimes adults, get answers delivered to hundreds of Santa letters each year.
“The other ( postal) carriers know to give me the letters because they want to make sure the messages get through to Santa,” he said.
The undertaking is steady work.
“We have a couple of ambitious kids that start writing their let
ters and sending them in the summer,” Dick said.
There is also a special red, white and green box in the post office lobby where children drop off their letters to the man at the North Pole.
The multicolored box will be outside the post office at 9:30 a.m., Dec. 9 when dozens of elementary students from St. Mary Catholic School will drop off their missives to Santa.
Dick has overseen the elves committee for about 14 years.
Santa, who bears a striking resemblance to Dick if he wore a beard, traditionally shows up on a fire engine to greet the school children. But with the pandemic he won’t be able to make the trip this season.
“Things are picking up,” Dick said. “The elves committee that helps Santa with the letters will be busy starting next week. The feeling at the North
Pole is that if they take the time to send a handwritten letter they deserve a handwritten letter back.”
Volunteers on the elves committee come from all walks of life in Royal Oak and include retired school teachers, carriers, a police officer and a nurse among their ranks.
“They get a kick out of taking part and reading the letters,” Dick said. “It really puts them in the Christmas spirit. The biggest thing I’ve heard is how much other folks say this is what makes Christmas for them.”
That sentiment applies to Dick and fellow carriers as well.
Christmastime is the busiest time of year for the post office with a tidal wave of letters and packages in the delivery system.
Being involved with the elves committee can help put things in perspective.
“This kind of grounds me through after those 11or 12-hour days,” Dick said. “It reminds that it’s something more than just the work we do.”
One year, the elf volunteers got a letter from a boy who asked Santa not for toys, but a chance for parents to be happy.
In the stack of letters to Santa, volunteers then found a letter from the boy’s mother. She was going through a divorce and didn’t have enough money to buy presents for her son, but hoped Santa would send him a nice letter.
“We pooled our money together at the post office,” Dick said, adding that a postal patron also offered to donate money for anyone who needed help for the holidays.
The patron went online and bought toys for the boy, and postal employees got presents for the boy and his mother.
Dick arranged to meet the mother and give her three large plastic bags filled with gifts before Christmas arrived. Even the family dog got a couple toys to play with.
“I gave her the bags of stuff and she just started crying,” Dick recalled. “She couldn’t believe it.”