For 108 years Americans have helped their postal service perform “Operation Santa.” But this year’s program will be fully digital and nationwide, reports CNN:
The program allows children and families to write letters to Santa, which will then be processed and shared online beginning on December 4 at USPSOperationSanta.com. Once the letters are live, anyone in the U.S. can go online and adopt a letter, and help make a child or family’s holiday wishes come true. Companies also can help adopt letters as teams.
While anyone and everyone can write a letter, the program was started to help families and kids in need, said Kim Frum, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). “The program has always been about providing holiday gifts for families who may not have the means to provide for anything more than basic everyday needs,” Frum told CNN in email. Over the last 108 years, the USPS has received hundreds of thousands of letters as part of the “Operation Santa” program, Frum said. Last year alone, more than 11,000 packages were sent to people who wrote to Santa and had their letters adopted. USPS first launched an online pilot of USPS Operation Santa in 2017 in New York City, Frum said. It expanded to seven cities online in 2018, and 17 cities in 2019. The success of the digitization of the program helped pave the way for this year’s expansion.
The decision to go fully digital comes as coronavirus cases continue to surge nationwide, leaving the nation to grapple with the consequences, including the economic impact.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot