{"id":27981,"date":"2020-01-09T10:32:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T15:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=27981"},"modified":"2020-01-09T10:32:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T15:32:50","slug":"usps-operation-santa-saw-record-participation-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2020\/01\/09\/usps-operation-santa-saw-record-participation-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS Operation Santa Saw Record Participation In 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HolidayOperationSantaResults_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HolidayOperationSantaResults_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HolidayOperationSantaResults_large-story-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HolidayOperationSantaResults_large-story-768x640.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/HolidayOperationSantaResults_large-story-102x85.jpg 102w\" alt=\"Child writing with pencil\" width=\"516\" height=\"430\" \/><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\"><em>Christian Spells, son of Capital District Marketing Specialist Kirk Spells, participates in an Operation Santa promotional event in College Park, MD, last month.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 1\/08\/20 &#8211; Participation surged to record levels last year in a Postal Service program that helps employees and customers fulfill the holiday wishes of those less fortunate.<\/p>\n<p>Through Operation Santa, individuals and organizations \u201cadopt\u201d letters to Santa Claus from families in need and\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/2019\/12\/10\/making-spirits-bright\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fulfill their requests<\/a><\/em>, which often involve basic necessities like food and clothing.<\/p>\n<p>More than 12,760 letters were adopted in 2019, the highest number in the program\u2019s long history and an increase of more than 240 percent from the year before.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately 11,300 packages were shipped through USPS to children and families in response to their letters, while the Operation Santa website received 949,420 visitors, about 20 times the number of visitors from the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe continue to answer wishes big and small with this program and spread joy that gives such a meaning to the Christmas holiday,\u201d said Chicago Customer Services Manager Janice Hall, who serves as an Operation Santa \u201cchief elf\u201d each year.<\/p>\n<p>Operation Santa traces its roots to 1912, when postal workers and customers began adopting children\u2019s letters to Santa.<\/p>\n<p>USPS\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/2019\/10\/17\/operation-santa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">offered several versions of Operation Santa<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in 2019, including a digital program where letters are posted online for adoption and a legacy program in Chicago and New York City where letters can be adopted in person.<\/p>\n<p>Postal Service leaders attribute the participation spike to these changes, including a modification that allowed individuals nationwide to adopt letters.<\/p>\n<p>A customer in Oakdale, CA, wrote to USPS to express his gratitude for the package his granddaughter received on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[She] opened her package from Santa Claus and was overjoyed to say the least,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The man added: \u201cI am sure Santa needs little encouragement from an old grandfather, but for what it is worth, please tell Santa his work is beyond compare and to please keep it up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christian Spells, son of Capital District Marketing Specialist Kirk Spells, participates in an Operation Santa promotional event in College Park, MD, last month. USPS News Link &#8211; 1\/08\/20 &#8211; Participation surged to record levels last year in a Postal Service program that helps employees and customers fulfill the holiday wishes of those less fortunate. Through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27983,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27981\/revisions\/27983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}