BLOOMSBURG, Penn. - When a postal worker found a hand-scrawled letter to Santa posing for a couple of critical items for the child’s family, she knew she had to assist.
Melissa Stinsman, a postal worker for the Bloomsburg Post Office in Pennsylvania, told Yahoo Lifestyle that her station keeps a special mailbox during the vacations to gather children’s letters to Santa. During this point of year, Stinsman spends four hours after she gets home from each shift to reply to the letters.
One of the letters that Stinsman opened last week was crammed with many typical requests, like a phone and Lego’s, but it had been the last two items on the list that Stinsman said broke her heart and spurred her to action.
“Food for family” and “Clothing for family” were the last two items that the 9-year-old had asked for, and two stars beside the things on the list indicated that they were within the child’s “top three items.”
The letter was sent in an envelope with two others — one was a list from the boy’s 5-year-old brother, and therefore the second was a further letter from the older boy.
“Dear Santa, last year you didn’t notice me, so I hope this year you notice me, and this year i will be able to be good. I pinkie promise...” the 9-year-old’s second letter read.
“When I read the letter, I cried,” Stinsman told Yahoo Lifestyle. She said she wanted to assist the boy and his family, but was stumped when there was no address on the letters. Noticing that the boy had signed his full name, she was ready to ask round the post office until she found the mailman who recognized the name from their route.
The next day, Stinsman found the family home and knocked on the front entrance. “I said, ‘Hi, this sounds weird but I work for the post office and that i got your son’s letter. I’d wish to assist you guys this year,’” she told Yahoo Lifestyle. “The mom said, ‘Is this real?’”
Stinsman started a money pool for the family, which allowed the community to donate items like gift cards, toys and clothing. She told Yahoo Lifestyle that they were ready to raise about $500 additionally to extra food donations that were collected at the post office.
Stinsman said that gift cards to local grocery stores got to the family early enough for them to organize for Christmas dinner which the remainder of the gifts would be brought over on Christmas Eve — Stinsman said she hoped to deliver when the youngsters were distracted in order that they’ll believe Santa really dropped the gifts off.
Stinsman wants to start out a Christmas tradition, and she or he told Yahoo Lifestyle, “It’s doable if everyone comes together.”