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1775mac
Pillar Of The Community
United States
869 Posts |
 Posted 11/19/2009 1:10 pm
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What a bunch of Bull Pucks!
Just another bean counter trying to save pennies at the cost of tearing down the USPS.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.
The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.
Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.
People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers.
North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed that caution is necessary to protect children. But he's outraged North Pole program should be affected by a sex offender's actions on the East Coast — and he thinks it's wrong that locals just found out about the change in recent days.
"It's Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact," he said. "They've been working on this for how long?"
The Postal Service began restricting its policies in such programs in 2006, including requiring volunteers to show identification.
But the Maryland incident involving the sex offender prompted additional changes, even forcing the agency to briefly suspend the Operation Santa program last year in New York and Chicago.
The agency now prohibits volunteers from having access to children's family names and addresses, said spokeswoman Sue Brennan. The Postal Service instead redacts the last name and addresses on each letter and replaces the addresses with codes that match computerized addresses known only to the post office — and leaves it up to individual post offices if they want to go through the time-consuming effort to shield the information.
Anchorage-based agency spokeswoman Pamela Moody said dealing with the tighter restrictions is not feasible in Alaska.
"It's always been a good program, but we're in different times and concerned for the privacy of the information," she said.
Moody stressed that kids around the world can still send letters to Santa Claus. The Postal Service still runs the giant Operation Santa Program in which children around the world can have their letters to Santa answered, and the restrictions do not affect private organizations running their own letter efforts.
But what will change are the generically addressed letters to "Santa Claus, North Pole" that for years have been forwarded to volunteers in the Alaska town. That program will stop, unless changes are made before Christmas.
Losing the Santa-letter cache is a blow to the community of 2,100 people, who pride themselves on their Christmas ties. Huge tourist attractions here include an everything-Christmas store, Santa Claus House, and the post office, where visitors can get a hand-stamped postmark on their postcards and packages if they ask for it.
Another issue raising the hackles on some locals is separate recent change. Anchorage — 260 miles (400 kilometers) to the south — is now processing the thousands of requests for North Pole postal cancellation marks on Christmas cards and packages from outside the state. It's a job long handled by nearby Fairbanks, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away.
Moody said with as many as 800,000 items processed last year, Fairbanks is not equipped to handle the overload. Anchorage is the only city in Alaska with the high-speed equipment necessary to do the job without delay. Moody disagreed with the mayor's belief that the process creates a false postmark.
Santa Claus House, built like a Swiss chalet and chock full of all items Christmas, sells more than 100,000 letters from Santa and one of the lures is the postmark.
Operations manager Paul Brown believes his business will be affected under changes to the volunteer Santa letter program because tens of thousands of letters are addressed to Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska.
Those letters will still be forwarded to volunteers but it's unclear yet if anything will be done with them. Those intercepted by the postal service will probably eventually be shredded.
Brown worries about misinterpretations of the changes, such as people believing it's no longer possible to get individual pieces of mail graced with the North Pole postmark.
Story from APS.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34038...e/?GT1=43001
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Words to live by. "Don't Poke The Bear." |
Edited by 1775mac - 11/20/2009 07:03 am |
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stamperdude
Pillar Of The Community
United States
2117 Posts |
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laswabbie
Pillar Of The Community
USA
3132 Posts |
Posted 11/19/2009 8:03 pm
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Welcome to the America we have become. I don't know what's worse, that they let a registered sex offender into the system, or that they're using that as an excuse to shut down the program.
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Greg - (APS 184124 ~ GPS 10097 ~ AAMS 12098 ~ SIP 10541)
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WpgLwr
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
907 Posts |
Posted 11/19/2009 8:22 pm
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It's okay, they can always write to the REAL Santa:
Santa Claus,
North Pole,
Canada H0H 0H0
...and he'll even answer!
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David Giles
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
1755 Posts |
Posted 11/19/2009 10:54 pm
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Right on, Glenn!
After all... Santa Clause is Canadian.
David
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WpgLwr
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
907 Posts |
Posted 11/19/2009 11:34 pm
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Yep, because as everyone knows, the North Pole is in Canada.
And he'll even answer letters from *ahem* Americans...
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Puzzler
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
1332 Posts |
Posted 11/19/2009 11:56 pm
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Perhaps the Magic of Santa is here, there and everywhere.
Canada Post is here to help Santa!
Link to the 2009 Canada Post
Santa Letter-Writing Program:
(Available to anyone from around the world who still believes in the magic of Christmas.)
(And also to those who aren't really sure.)
http://www.canadapost.ca/dec/santa/...efault-e.asp
(Pictures borrowed from Canada Post.)
(No live links in the pictures - please go to Canada Post dot ca at the above or below link.))
(Apologies to any Elves having their legs jiggled by this post!)
 
http://www.canadapost.ca/dec/santa/...efault-e.asp
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Edited by Puzzler - 11/20/2009 12:41 am |
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luvthecommonwealth
Valued Member
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted 11/20/2009 01:16 am
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Puzzler has a good idea...Canada is part of the North Pole after all :D
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bobgggg
Pillar Of The Community
USA
2178 Posts |
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WpgLwr
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
907 Posts |
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Puzzler
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
1332 Posts |
Posted 11/20/2009 6:45 pm
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Aaaah. !
I knew I should have left extra milk and cookies out for the wee folk.
Santa does tend to eat a lot. Busy guy though.
Aha, it wasn't the Gremlins who had taken my stamp tongs, it was Elves!
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David Giles
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
1755 Posts |
Posted 11/20/2009 7:31 pm
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My sister, a Canada Post employee, was on the letter response team for years. The letters are answered by Canada Post employees, and members of the Canada Post Heritage Club (that's the club for retired and former Canada Post employees).
She told me they receive thousands of letters to Santa Clause/Pere Noel from around the globe. They even have folks who speak and read languages other than English or French, who can write back to a child in their native tongue.
And, most importantly, these folks are all volunteers!
Hats off to Canada Post employees! A job well done!
David
 <----- I just love this guy!
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cgrotha
Pillar Of The Community
United States
563 Posts |
Posted 11/20/2009 7:53 pm
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There is an alternative. The USPS has a way to accomplish the same result but the parents have to cooperate in the effort. The address and instructions are carried on the "MSNBC" or "NBC Nightly News" websites. It's unclear whether the original item was poorly reported or if they saw the error of their ways so quickly.
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WpgLwr
Pillar Of The Community
Canada
907 Posts |
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luvthecommonwealth
Valued Member
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted 11/21/2009 04:51 am
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I must commend you for being able to do that WpgLwr. I know I couldn't...I'm too darn sensitive.
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khj
Pillar Of The Community
United States
2530 Posts |
Posted 11/21/2009 1:33 pm
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USPS has reversed it's decision regarding North Pole, Alaska. For the time being, anyway...
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