BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- As you well know, Santa gets a lot of mail. So, Melissa Stinsman at the Bloomsburg Post Office helps him sort through it.
She makes sure all the letters with children's Christmas lists get from the Bloomsburg to the North Pole.
Recently, Stinsman noticed one list included gifts that couldn't be found in Santa’s workshop.
"He said, I'm going to star the most important things, and food and clothes for the family were the ones he starred,” Stinsman of the Bloomsburg Post Office said.
Like every little boy, he still asked Santa for a few toys. But most importantly, he just wanted the essentials so his family could stay warm and fed during the holidays.
"It really touched my heart,” Stinsman said.
Melissa decided to step in for Santa this time and help. But the boy didn't leave a return address, so she didn't know how to find him.
Luckily, she works at the right place. The boy's house is on her co-worker's daily route.
So, she went and knocked on the door. The boy's mother answered.
"She came out and I told her, 'This is going to sound really strange, but I work at the post office and I would like to help your family this year.' And we just stood and cried in the rain,” Stinsman said.
Once word began to spread around the post office, everybody wanted to pitch in. Soon, Melissa had enough donations to give this little boy more than what he asked for.
"We're basically a family here. We see everybody here more than our family sometimes, so it's nice to have everybody just come together and do this good deed, especially this time of the year, just to help a family out,” Bloomsburg Postmaster Dennis Parulis said.
"I mean it literally has me to the moon and back, overwhelmed with just joy. It feels really good to finally be in a position in my life where I can give back to somebody else,” Stinsman said.
Giving a gift that can't come from anywhere but the heart.