NEWS ALERT Dec 4, 2006

Please note that the issue discussed here has been solved! See news of Dec 10 for the latest details... 

According to changes in how the United States Postal Service administers the "Letters to Santa" program the following rules apply;

All persons adopting letters that were sent through the US Mail must present a valid government ID in "PERSON" to the organization who assists the Postal Service with answering Santa's mail.

What does this mean you may ask...

Well this means that a scanned copy of a Drivers license or a fax copy is not sufficent to meet this new regulation.

This in essence means that Santa's Heart can no longer facilitate volunteers who wish to work as a team to answer Santa's Mail.

I am appreciative of the Post Office stepping up security above what was in place last year. My only gripe is that the policy will harm the program that they administer.

Ours is not the only organization that is affected by this, there are organizations all across America that have been reciving letters via the mail and distribute them to people.

Churches, and civic organizations will have the same issues with obeying the new policy.

I did speak to the Chief Privacy Officer for the Post Office in Washington and was informed that they will review the situation after the first of the year.

It is the Post Office's position that there are security issues with us not "touching" the ID.

It is their belief that we are placing people at risk by not touching the ID. Even though we have all the same data the Post Office collects plus an confirmed email address and a copy of their ID.

They also believe that we are creating a hazard to the safety of the letter writer by having an image of the letter on the website. I explained that we cover the last name and the street number and anything else that would give any viewer the ability to find the letter writer.

I asked that they reconsider if we removed the street name and only displayed the first name and City and Zip in the public view and I was told that was not acceptable.

Our goal has always been and will continue to be to bring attention the the work that the Post Office has done to help the neediest members of our society.

We here at Santa's Heart will not stop promoting the adoption of letters.

It just distresses us that the segment of the population we choose to help cannot participate in the program any more.

I encourage all of you who can, and would like to help the children to seek out the local organizations who can physically verify your ID. As the goal here has been and will continue to be to help the children who need us the most.

Thank you for your continued interest and I hope we can continue to brighten the lives of as many children as possible.

Sincerely,

Jim Parrish

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News Update Nov 29th 2006  

The letters are now available at the Post offices! 

Santa's Heart received 501(C)3 status from the IRS in February 2006 and any donations are now tax deductible!
P.S. This status is retroactive to Nov 2005.
 

News Update Nov 23rd 2006

We have heard that the Post Offices will start releasing letters the week after Thanksgiving.

News Update Nov 12th 2006

We are using social networks to spread the word. Now we can be seen on the "YouTube" video sharing network.
Click here to visit the Santa's Heart Channel on You Tube

There is also a "MySpace" page for Santa's Heart - please add us to your page.
Click here to visit the Santa's Heart MySpace page

News Update Oct 25th 2006

Did you receive something for Christmas last year that you really don’t have a use for?   Put it to good use! Santa’s Heart is now listed on Ebay’s Givingwork’s. This service allows people to sell items on Ebay and designate a percentage of the selling price to be donated to a Non-Profit of their choice. You have the ability to designate from 10% - 100% of the selling price of your items to be sent to your chosen charity and you will receive a receipt for tax purposes. Santa’s Heart is a 501(c) 3 Non-profit so any donations are considered tax deductible.

Anything from toy trucks to real ones!

There is a minimum of $5 to be donated and there is a small processing fee for the transaction. Additionally, if you donate 90% or greater of the selling price, then Ebay will donate the transaction fee to the Charity. 

Here is a link to the Santa’s Heart page on Ebay (Since this is new, there aren't any listings as of this posting; hopefully this will change soon!)
Click here to visit

News Update Oct 17th 2006

I can't believe it has been almost a year...

We are in the process of "resetting" the website for the 2006 Christmas Season. I have posted on Craig's List in the San Francisco area to see if that is be a good way to let people know that we exist and to advise we will be needing volunteers to help process letters from the Children.

As always, there are three reasons we need lots of volunteers....

1. Obtaining the letters from the Post office and scanning them to our website.

2. Adopting the letters and answering them to help brighten the holidays for children everywhere.

3. Getting the WORD OUT!!
Without a lot of word of mouth advertising or people posting flyers to increase awareness of what our mission is, nothing will happen.

People are emailing me and asking "what can we do to help?"

At this time my answer is "ORGANIZE" - organize groups of people who see the benefit of helping children in your area.  Some can go to the post offices, read through the letters, take them, scan them  and upload them to the Santa's Heart database.

Talk to people where you work, at your church and don't forget the civic clubs. It really is not difficult to get people involved once they know the whole story!

We need people to pledge to help so we do not have any left over children this year.

We can use assistance creating flyers and material for people to mail and post for others to see.  We could really use help writing tutorials on how to use the system.  Last year I was on hiatus from my job and was able to spend 12 hours a day answering the emails and providing support to people. This year, I will not have that luxury.

I am starting to send emails to the volunteers from last year and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

If I can be of any assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me. parrish@santasheart.org

May God bless all of you.

Thank you,

Jim Parrish
Santa's Heart.

© Santa's Heart, Inc. 2005-2006