Santa writes back
Milton elves keep St. Nick in touch

By COURTNEY LAMDIN | Staff Writer
courtney@miltonindependent.com

More than 100 good little boys and girls will receive something magical in the mail this holiday season.

Milton’s Recreation Department rounded up a group of elves to help Santa write letters back to all the children who penned him a wish list and their best wishes to him and the reindeer.

Head elf Kym Duchesneau – also the Milton Recreation coordinator – got hold of some of her favorite letters and shared them with the Independent before forwarding them to the North Pole.

This year, letters came from near and far. Kids from Milton, Georgia, St. Albans and Highgate wrote in, and so did some from Virginia, Florida, Colorado and Massachusetts. They should hear back from Santa any day now.

The elves noticed many children these days are asking for electronics – Xboxes and video games like Modern Warfare, iPads, iPods and digital cameras. Others want classic toys like an Easy Bake Oven, go kart, Barbies, toy trucks and Legos.

And still more ask for unique gifts – like hot sauce, a fairy or Smurf and something called Doctor Dreadful Zombie Lab.

Kelsey Lemieux, a Milton High School junior, volunteered to help Santa this year even though she’s already met her requirements for National Honor Society. She said one child asked for a giraffe and another for dog biscuits for a pet.

Courtney Pelkey, another National Honor Society student, remembers getting letters from Santa as a kid and was happy to help the jolly man this year. She thought the kids’ letters were really thoughtful, noting that one 9-year-old girl told Santa, “You’re such a good person, and all the people in school think you’re a really good person, too.”

“He’s real in your heart, and you love him for you to do that,” Pelkey said.
Other kids wrote how they’ve been good all year by helping parents around the house and asked what kind of toys Santa plays with.

Kelsey and Courtney are both happy they could help make a child smile this Christmas.

“Everyone deserves to have a little extra happiness on the holidays, especially little kids,” Kelsey said.

Courtney added, “They’re going to cherish it because it came from someone who means the world to them.”

This is Milton Rec’s fourth year helping Santa correspond, and the program has grown each year, Duchesneau said. Former town employees Betty Couture and Betsy Hoffmeister and Milton’s Red Hat Society also helped write letters.

The Rec Department is still holding onto three letters that got lost in the mail on their way to Santa – they don’t have return addresses. If you think it could be your letter, contact Duchesneau at 893-4922, and she’ll forward the letter to Santa so he can write back

“It makes the kids happy, Duchesneau said. “We hear back from the parents and the grandparents that they get the letter back in the mail and the kids are so excited.”