Taking a look back at FMC’s Letters to Santa

BY Dawn Rankins

The Canyon Lake Family Matters Club has been receiving letters from children in Canyon Lake for eight years now and not only does the club receive letters, but they answer them all on behalf of Santa and deliver toys to all the Canyon Lake children who write in.

The club’s elves delivered 175 toys to the children of Canyon Lake last month.

There is so much work that goes into making this event such a huge success, Shawna Bowen, Family Matters Club founder, said.

A mailbox is provided for kids to drop off their letters beginning at the city’s Winter Wonderland event the first week of December. Afterward, the mailbox is placed at one of the elves’ homes within the community, so children can continue to drop off their letters.

Once letters are received, the club’s volunteer elves get to work. They read each letter for Santa, then they match each child to a gift. The gifts are wrapped, a custom letter from Santa is written and a little baggy of reindeer food, which children can sprinkle on their lawns on Christmas Eve for Santa’s reindeer as he visits their houses, is created and they are all delivered to the children’s homes.

Kendall Elliot opens a gift last month that Santa had just delivered to her home after she wrote a letter to Santa and dropped it off in the Canyon Lake Family Matters Club’s mailbox. For the eighth year in a row, the club answered letters with delivered gifts to Canyon Lake children. Photo provided by Shawna Bowen.

Shawna said it takes a lot of time and man hours to stay organized. The club has a spreadsheet that tracks all the kids’ names, their ages, addresses, the reading of each letter, their wish gift, the return letter and the delivery.

Once a gift is identified for the child, the next phase of work begins. Gifts are wrapped and separated logistically for ease of delivery.

Several club members volunteered their time to help with the process. Shawna specifically pointed out and thanked volunteers Jeannie H, Valerie R, Donna L, Donna K, Elyse L, Linda S, Kathy W, Jan M and Dawn R.

In return, the volunteers were eager to thank Shawna for her talent in organizing and keeping everyone on task.

“Hopefully, nobody was missed,” Shawna said. “We want everyone to know how appreciative we are for all those who helped.”

Members of the Canyon Lake Family Matters Club gather to wrap 175 gifts for Canyon Lake’s children last month as part of the club’s annual Letters to Santa project. All Canyon Lake children who drop off a letter to Santa receive a gift.

The Family Matters Club received toy donations from several other Canyon Lake clubs.

The Canyon Lake Woman’s Club took on a special philanthropic endeavor and had its members bring in a toy that could be used towards the event. It was at the November Woman’s Club meeting that the ladies took home gift tags with toys listed on them identifying what the Family Matters Club needed.

“We would especially like to thank Beverly Willard, who is a member of the Women’s Club, and her husband Harold for the generous monetary donation they made towards purchasing additional needed toys,” Shawna said. “They also gave a gift of yummy fixings to make the reindeer food.”

Other clubs the Family Matters Club would like to thank, Shawna said, are the Carts of Canyon Lake and the Canyon Lake Junior Women’s Club that donated toys they had received at their Christmas events.

Photos provided by Shawna Bowen

Canyon Lake business donations came in from Patriotic Arms, Lake Lyf, Canyon Lake Coldwell Banker, Real Deals, Hauger Plumbing, Daisy Dukez, Mr. Stix Moving, American Cancer Fighter, Canyon Hills Plumbing of Lake Elsinore and Pepe’s.

Johnny and Veronica Juarez of Patriotic Arms put Santa’s mailbox in their yard on Canyon Lake Drive North for the collection of the children’s letters to Santa.

Santa’s workshop was set up during December so the helper elves could gather to match up each child with his or her gift and then wrap them all.

The Family Matters Club also received a few letters from children outside the community and they, too, received a letter from Santa along with some of the reindeer treats.

The club received a total of 248 letters for Santa and with the help of its dedicated elves volunteers, answered each one, Shawna said.

Those interested in becoming a part of the Canyon Lake Family Matters Club should check them out on Facebook and message them for more information.