Last month, DMC used the December Activity Fund to help those in need by participating in Operation Santa.
Operation Santa
Each holiday season, post offices receive "hundreds of thousands" of letters from children asking Santa Claus for toys, games, and even basic necessities for themselves and their families. USPS's Operation Santa program lets volunteers stand in for Santa and fulfill these wishes during the holiday season.
How Operation Santa Works
Letters are uploaded to USPS's online Operation Santa database. Participants can create an account to ‘adopt’ one of these letters and send gifts and a letter response from Santa.
After the gifts have been festively wrapped, a QR code label is attached that allows the gift to be sent without revealing the recipients' identifiable information. The gifts can then be dropped off at participating USPS locations for delivery.
Santa's Workshop
This year, 14 DMCers (and six plus ones) signed up to participate. First, A DMC account was created on the Operation Santa website. Then, participants logged in and selected a letter or two to adopt.
DMC supported this effort by using the Activity Fund, a monthly budget dedicated to social activities, to supplement the purchases of everyone who participated. Participants got to work purchasing and wrapping the gifts requested in each adopted letter. Letters and their corresponding gifts were shared in our #operation-santa Slack channel.
Spreading Holiday Cheer
Spending time with teammates while helping others was a great way spread holiday cheer throughout several DMC offices.
According to Paul Mangels of DMC New York, "I like Operation Santa because it’s something we can all do together even though we’re all dotted around the country and mainly working remotely. It’s just nice to feel like we’re helping people out where we can, and it’s nice that USPS lets you adopt letters from your home state."
This is DMC's second time participating in the Operation Santa program. "I participated in Operation Santa for the first time in 2020 when a colleague organized a group of us at DMC to participate," Paul said. "I thought it was a good activity for us to do around the holidays, so I put it together again this year. I’m just grateful to have a bunch of generous colleagues who all signed up!"
DMC's second annual Operation Santa was a great success. We hope to continue this tradition in the future!
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