Operation Santa: A time for thanks

by Larry Meyer
MRA Chairman and CEO

The holidays are over and retailers are regrouping, analyzing what went well and what didn’t. But amid the business and busy-ness of the holiday season, we recognize that Christmas is marked by a spirit of generosity, as caring people everywhere give money, goods, services or—that most valuable commodity during the holidays—time.

For MRA, this spirit has led to our active participation in Operation Santa, a Lansing-area project that began in 1993. Its mission is to make sure that needy children in the area have a good Christmas.

MRA has been involved in Operation Santa for five years. This year, MRA staff sponsored 41 out of the approximately 1,100 kids who were helped by the program.

Lansing-area resident Jan Mayhew is the force behind Operation Santa. Jan teams up with local elementary school social workers and teachers to identify needy children in Lansing’s schools. Teachers work with parents of the identified children to provide information about their needs and wishes. For each child identified, the whole family is considered part of the program.

At the same time, Jan lines up local organizations whose employees are willing to purchase gifts for the children. Gifts are purchased, and through a distribution system that would make any retailer proud, area parents have something to put under the tree on Christmas morning.

I’m proud to say that MRA’s sales and marketing team plays a large role in that distribution system. Each year, the team dons Santa hats and reindeer antlers and makes the rounds to various participating organizations, collecting the gifts and dropping them off at the sorting center at a local church.

This year’s tasks included renting a U-Haul to pick up about 50 bicycles that the Okemos Meijer provided at cost, bikes of all sizes matched to needy boys and girls.

About 250 more children were identified as in need this year compared to last year. The increase is due in part to Jan adding several schools to her list, but it also reflects both the success of the program and, unfortunately, the increased need caused by hard economic times.

Around mid-January, the thank-you notes come in from the school staff and social workers and from the families themselves. The notes I read this year included these thoughts: “Without you we would not have a Christmas,” “We are so thankful and we ask God to bless you all” and “We will love you very much.”

Reading these notes simply makes me want to express my own gratitude to everyone involved, especially for the investments of time and energy.

First to Operation Santa organizer Jan Mayhew, a dedicated and talented woman, and to Jeannie Watkin, MRA membership sales and support manager, who takes time out of her schedule to coordinate MRA’s efforts.

Next, to the entire sales and marketing team: John Mayleben, vice president of sales and marketing; Tom Tuggle, director of sales and community banking; sales representatives Brett Binkley, Brian Brisbane, Ken Kowalski, Burke Sage and Chris Smith; and Darcy Clark, the team’s administrative assistant—thank you.

Finally, I thank all the MRA staff who bought gifts for the kids of Walnut Elementary—and all of you retailers who have shown your generosity in large and small ways I’ll never know about.

Jan Mayhew says that, in the end, Operation Santa “is not about the gifts, the toys and the clothes—it’s about self esteem, it’s about feeling loved and valued.” The program is also a gift to those who have this opportunity to give of themselves.