WASHINGTON – For 29 years, Baltimore resident Al Payne has played the role of Santa, personally delivering gifts on Christmas Eve to needy children and families.
Payne’s “sleigh ride” this year has been set back this year by a fire on the night before Thanksgiving that destroyed two full truckloads of toys he had were stored in the beauty shop where his wife works.
But he is not giving up.
“I don’t let these things stop me,” said Payne, who founded the non-profit Something for Everyone to help in his annual gift giving. “We are going to have a successful season regardless.”
A Postal Service worker for 31 years, Payne sifts through letters to Santa at the Baltimore district post office, where he is a supervisor, to find needy families.
“We try to fulfill their wish if it is not outrageous or out of context with reality,” said Payne, 53. “We try to select the letters based on people that we know we can help.”
The office gets hundreds of letters a season. Some are from kids requesting toys and games, but many are “heartbreaking” letters from needy families who can barely afford basic necessities, said Greg Colburn, a spokesman for the Postal Service’s Baltimore district.
“Reading the letters makes you thankful for what you have,” said Colburn. “There are so many people who are out there hurting.”
For the past 20 years, he said, employees in the Baltimore district, which serves most of the state, have answered all the letters and looked for people to “adopt” the neediest families. Workers have opened 475 letters this year, 164 of them from needy families. Colburn said 112 of those still need adopting, but he called it “a real good start.”
“Things pick up dramatically as you get closer to Christmas,” Colburn said.
Payne’s organization has adopted about 30 of the families who wrote to Santa. He and a handful of volunteers work nights and weekends to collect toys, clothes and food, then personally deliver the packages to families across the state on Christmas Eve, usually not returning home until 9 a.m. on Christmas.
Last year, Payne and his helpers delivered 10 to 12 truckloads of goodies to 244 families. This year’s fire means fewer families will be served — Payne hopes to help more than 100 — but he vowed that “one way or the other, I do things that can help those in need.”
His gift runs include everything from dolls to winter coats to a holiday meal. Over the years, Payne has developed an informal network of contributors, but he often pays out of his pocket for perishable food, like a turkey for a Christmas dinner, or even heat. When he learned in 1999 that two elderly women were shivering in their apartment because they could not pay the fuel bill, Payne paid for 100 gallons of fuel.
“Monetary donations come slim and few and far between,” said Payne, adding that, “if I can help them, I am going to help them.”
Besides scarce funds, Payne said another obstacle is finding enough volunteers. This year, he has nine volunteers and only vehicles — a typical year for him.
“He is a hard-working, generous person,” said Colburn. “It is unbelievable. He is running his own North Pole Santa shop.”
Payne said simply that he was raised to be grateful for everything he had and to help others who are less fortunate.
“I may not be able to help the world,” he said. “This is just my way of contributing to society.”