Santa’s Helpers deliver another Merry Christmas
By Suzanne Werre
BHG News Service
Santa’s Helpers were busy sorting, wrapping, tucking and packing Saturday morning at the Underwood City Hall – maybe not exactly "jolly old elves," but they were a pretty happy group.
Twenty-three families made up of 40 adults and 45 children received gifts of perishable and nonperishable food items, as well as gifts and goodies from Santa’s Helpers this past Saturday, the 12th year in a row that Underwood’s current Santa’s Helpers have been making deliveries.
Families in need of a little extra help over the holidays used to get some help from Underwood’s Women of Today, and then the JayCees, starting back in the 1980s, but when the JayCees disbanded in 2000, Santa’s Helpers died out. But only for a year. In 2001, Santa’s Helpers made their comeback.
"Robin came and asked . . . she said ‘I think this program should continue’," recalled one of Santa’s chief helpers, Diane Schell. "She said, if you help, I will help, and I said ‘okay’!"
Robin Hultberg and Diane Schell have been Santa’s top helpers in Underwood ever since. They do get some fellow helpers, particularly when it comes to dividing up the donations and divvying them out just before Christmas.
