Thanks goes out to Community Action workers

Dear Community Action workers:

I just want to write and say thank you. I am sure that you don't hear it enough. The time and effort that you put into the Secret Santa Program is well appreciated.

In the letters that you send out, it states that if you want to thank your sponsor please send a "thank you" card, but I am sure that no one takes the time to thank you, the workers that set it all up for the sponsor to donate. No one puts in more effort than the group of people that go through the hundreds of applications, interviews each applicant, photo copies all information, makes sure that each applicant has all the correct information, and if the applicant doesn't have proper and correct information that they need at the time, helps them so that they can get signed up and start the process that day, instead of having to come back (there were three applicants at the time that I was signing up that didn't have all the information needed, and instead of turning them away, you let them use the phone to call the ODJ&FS, to fax over information to your office). The time that you spend to get kids sponsored, the time you spend to send the letters out. Then the days that are for pick-up, the hours that you spend to make sure each family gets the gifts, and they go out to the right people. You have a great group of people that help children all over the county, and I want you to know that I personally cherish the moment on Christmas morning when my child opens the gifts that you spent so much time to make sure that he got. I want you to know that I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Also, I would like to address the papers that we sign while in the office, filling out the application, at the start of this long process (for you, not for the applicant). You state in these papers that you are just the distribution center, and have no control over the gifts received. Which brings me to the realization that there are a lot of begrudging people in the world. This upsets me to no end. I have heard people, and seen their faces as they have received these gifts from the program, and it physically makes me ill!! I apologize for their ignorance. Some people just don't understand, that without this program, some children would have nothing. Without this program, the gifts that were just received for free, would not be under their kids' tree come Christmas morning. In bigger cities, there isn't a Secret Santa Program, and there are children that wake up to nothing! So, once again, I thank you for putting this program together, and for helping the children.

To the sponsors that don't get enough recognition also. I want to thank you, for taking the time out of your busy schedule and shopping with your money, and making sure that the gifts that you have bought, are at the distribution center the day that they are supposed to be. I want to thank you for being a big part of Christmas morning, and having enough Christmas spirit in your hearts to go out and make a difference in a child's life. There have been times that I didn't leave a thank you note for the sponsor, because I was trying to hurry, or felt that I had to be somewhere else at the time, and I apologize for that. All of the sponsors need to be thanked, no matter what was bought for the child, because that is more than what that child would have had without them.

So, I want everyone that has had a helping hand in the Secret Santa Program to know, that just because it's not always said, or heard, or written ... thank you. For your time, effort, and sincerity. May you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Paula E Moyer

New Matamoras