By Joshua Huff, sports editor
For those already embraced by that warm, fuzzy feeling associated with the holidays, the USPS has something for you: its annual Operation Santa adopt a letter program.
The postal service kicked off the annual program on Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. The goal behind the initiative is to give children a Christmas to remember.
This year, people can now go to the Operation Santa website, choose to adopt a letter, view, and sign to adopt any letter of their choosing. This is a far cry from the days in which people had to go into the post office in person to read and adopt a letter.
Anyone can adopt a letter on the site, fulfill the requests in it and send it through any post office.
The postal service expanded digital access to the program to 15 cities this year:
- Orlando, FL
- Austin, TX
- Cleveland, OH
- Los Angeles, CA
- New York, NY
- Philadelphia, PA
- Chicago, IL
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Sacramento, CA
- Baltimore, MD
- Boston, MA
- Denver, CO
- Phoenix, AZ
- Washington, DC
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
Though the letters will only originate from the areas listed above, anyone can go onto the Operation Santa website and adopt a letter.
The agency said that the 15 cities chosen for the program this year fit a number of criteria, including interest in the program and community need. This is the first year of the program in Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Grand Rapids and San Juan.
Operation Santa began in 1912 when the postmaster general allowed people to respond letters being sent in the mail to Santa Claus. This year marks the 107th year for Operation Santa.