Thus Project Santa – OVConnect style – was born. Thank you to all of Santa’s helpers that came out Sunday, December 7 to help Mr. Claus respond to his requests for toys!

As we’re all aware, St. Nick gets very busy this time of year. And with exponential population growth the world over, the big man is just going to get busier and busier.

That’s why the Jolly One enlisted the help of the Moundsville USPS to gather letters to him from children all over the Ohio Valley including southeastern Ohio, the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and Washington County, Pennsylvania. The USPS brought those letters to the Children’s Museum, who graciously allowed us to use their space from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

OVConnect donated stationery, pens, and postage to the cause so that those of us who wanted to help write responses were able to do so for FREE. We asked specifically for and received letters from boys and girls who have been nice so that we didn’t have to write any letters regarding behavioral dissatisfaction.

Mr. Claus provided guidelines about how to respond to children, so we didn’t need to worry if we didn’t feel like we knew what to write. Afterwards, the Moundsville USPS gathered and paid to send all the letters to the North Pole for postmarking and St. Nicholas’ final approval.

We specifically sought out the Children’s Museum of the Ohio Valley – who kindly agreed to donate the space – so that those of us with kids could bring them for free playtime while we write letters. Several of you took us up on that and brought your little ones (or not so little ones) along to play with one another.

Read an announcement prior to the event in Wheeling’s The Intelligencer.

Who We Helped

The Moundsville, WV USPS provided us a list of all the cities with kids we helped and the # of kids per city in parentheses. These are:

* West Virginia:
Wheeling (41), Moundsville (33), Wellsburg (11), Glen Easton (7), Weirton (5), Glen Dale (4), Benwood (3), Triadelphia (2), Bethany, and Follansbee, New Cumberland, New Martinsville, and Proctor (1 each)
* Ohio:
St. Clairsville (23) and Bethesda, Bridgeport, Cadiz, Clairington, Jacobsburg, and Woodsfield (1 each)
* Pennsylvania:
Venetia (15), Canonsburg / McMurray (10), Washington (10), Waynesburg (8), New Freeport (4), Holbrook (3), Houston (3), Rogersville (3), California (2), McDonald (2), McKees Rocks (2), Rices Landing (2), Sycamore (2), Wind Ridge (2), and Bentleyville, Graysville, and Homestead (1 each)

We also helped on a few assorted letters to other parts of the country that we assume were received by kids visiting relatives in the area over the holidays.

Finally, we also wanted to share this note that someone sent Phil Zimmerman, the USPS Postmaster of the Moundsville branch:

Mr. Zimmerman & Members of OVConnect

Thank you for helping to keep the magic of believing in Santa. My 3 grandkids have sent their letters off to Santa & can’t wait for their answer.

Thanks again,

Christine M.

On behalf of OVConnect, thank you, Christine. We had a great time!