You don’t need to fish through a pile of letters to the Salvation Army and Item Santa to know there’s poverty and tragedy in this world.
It is all around us. Ask any social worker whose client lists are overflowing. Or ask any police officer who has to visit homes and see the condition in which some of the people inside them live. Same goes for firefighters who, while they’re putting out fires, must also see the faces of the children and their parents as they realize that not only are they out in the freezing cold, but they have nowhere to go on top of all that.
Even in this profession, you see things that just haunt you. We may stand on the periphery of the social fabric that addresses all these concerns and conditions, but we’re there. If newspaper reporters have been at this job long enough, we’ve spoken to a family member whose loved one has just died under tragic circumstances.
But you don’t have to be a first-hand participant, or a first-hand observer to life’s unfairness to understand it. Pick up a newspaper. Watch the news. Go to your child’s school and watch some of the children who come out at the end of the day.
It is all around us. The consistent need to protect the most innocent people among us from life’s randomness and unfairness rears its head daily.
The Item Santa asks that you please pay attention to signs of that need. Please don’t turn away, or change the station, or turn to the comics. Please take the view that if you’re sitting in a warm home, in a nice, comfortable chair, reading the paper or watching television, then you are blessed.
More than 100 years ago, Francis Pharcellus Church wrote something that is truer every day we’re on this earth. Wrote Church, “(Santa Claus) exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.”
Think about that. The editorial in the New York Sun ran in 1897 as an answer to a little girl named Virginia O’Hanlon, who wrote to the editor a letter asking whether it was true that Santa didn’t exist. The resulting response, “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus” is legend.
It is up to us, Item readers, to put Church’s words into action. We are the ones who will have to dig a little deeper into our pockets to give the Item Santa fund enough money to ensure that the victims of life’s unfairness aren’t the ones who ultimately have to bear the brunt of it.
How do I contribute? There are two main ways. First, clip the coupon that is inside the paper, fill out the form, and mail it to The Item Salvation Army Santa, 85 Exchange St., Lynn, MA 01901.
There is also a way to donate online through the Salvation Army at itemsanta.org.
All donations are listed in Item print editions through the month of December and into 2022, along with a brief message from each donor, if desired.
This is the 55th year the Item Santa has been in existence. If you haven’t participated up to now, this would be a great time to start.
NOTE: The application period for aid from Item Santa has closed and The Item does not process applicants. All questions about the program and distribution of gifts should be directed to the Salvation Army at 781-598-0673.
