Readers deserve big thanks from Santa Fund

Feel that? The gentle tapping between your shoulder blades? That’s the pat on your backs you so deserve. Telegraph readers never cease to amaze. After the Christmas trees have been recycled and the wrapping paper has been cleared away, we’ve added up all contributions to The Telegraph Santa Fund this holiday season, and cash donations added up to a bit more than $109,580 and tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of new toys, clothes and gift cards. All of your donations went directly to more than 1,000 families, with more than 3,000 children, on Christmas day. You didn’t see their faces and neither did we, but we were there when parents picked up dozens of bright, shiny bicycles, gorgeously wrapped baby dolls and toy trucks and warm, winter coats to put under their trees. Said one mother as she picked up Santa Fund gifts at the Salvation Army, “without this, there just wouldn’t be a Christmas for my kids.” That was right before she thanked volunteers once, twice and once again. That mom came in with another 100 or so parents, who missed the initial registration for the Santa Fund, because they had either just moved to town or didn’t expect to need Santa Fund help. Rosemarie Dykeman, director of social services for the Salvation Army, was concerned that there was practically nothing to give teenagers that day. In fact the teenager table only had a handful of items.