Thank You, Ray

Each Friday, I’m publicly thanking someone who’s made a difference in my life or the lives of others. Read more about this project here.

Ray Emanuel was a postal worker here in Nashville who turned what could have been a very ordinary job into something quite extraordinary.

For years, Ray intercepted all the letters addressed to Santa at Christmas time, read each one, and made sure the ones with return addresses received a card from Santa in the mail. But at some point, mere cards weren’t enough.

Amid the requests for toys and treats, Ray read heartbreaking letters from children asking Santa for food for their family, clothing for brothers and sisters, help for a sick parent– and Ray found that he couldn’t ignore them. With help from the post office and donations from volunteers, Ray and his co-worker Betty created what I consider to be one of the greatest Christmas volunteer programs of all time.

Around the first of December, Nashville’s mail carriers became a sort of Santa spy network. If a mail carrier spotted a letter to Santa from a family that was clearly struggling, the letter would be marked with an address and flagged for Ray’s special attention. Ray and Betty would organize teams of volunteers to collect whatever it was that those families needed- food, toys, clothing, etc. On Christmas Eve, these volunteers went to the houses on Santa’s behalf and delivered his response. Often times, the parents had no idea that the letter to Santa had even been written — For them, it was a true Christmas miracle.

I found out about Ray’s Santa program when I was a reporter here in Nashville, and I wrote a story about it – My family also answered one of the letters that year, and it was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. It created a tradition in my family to provide Christmas each year for at least one person who wouldn’t experience it otherwise- and I look back now and realize that Ray and Betty were our catalyst.

At some point after I left my reporting job, the program was discontinued, due I’m sure, to funding issues, and Ray moved on to another career- but I want to thank him today for what he did over a decade ago. I’m just one person who can say now that the Santa letter experience changed me, and taught me how to reach out to others around me– I’m sure there are hundreds of people here in Nashville who would say the same thing.

By reading letters written to Santa, Ray was able to find people in our own neighborhoods who desperately needed help and may have otherwise gone unnoticed. I’m so glad he had the heart to do something about it.

Thank you, Ray. Your commitment to serve others continues to inspire me today.