Sedalia's secret Santa delivers again

When Cheryl Kalkman wrote a letter to Santa, she didn’t think it would be answered.

But Sedalia’s secret Santa knocked on Kalkman’s door Friday bearing a vacuum cleaner, donated by Pettis County Community Partnership, and a crisp $50 bill.

Kalkman, 47, wrote her letter asking for a vacuum because hers had broken.
The secret Santa delivered.

Kalkman teared up and hugged Santa.“Thank you so very much,” she said. “I didn’t think it would happen.”

Kalkman wrote the letter after she saw the Democrat story documenting secret Santa’s first outing here.
“I have got a cat and dog, and the hair goes in my lungs, and I couldn’t buy one. I couldn’t do anything,” she said. Kalkman, who is on oxygen, suffers from emphysema and asthma.

The secret Santa, who wishes to remain anonymous, traveled from house to house  — chauffeured by Cheri Heeren, of the partnership — checking off names on her “nice” list.
Friday’s was Santa’s third trip to give presents. Since her first trip, the partnership has received $400 in donations for Santa to give out.

Santa herself put $6,000 toward the cause.

Esther Dean, 30, was surprised to see Santa when she answered a knock at her door Friday.
“I heard a secret Santa was around, but I thought, eh,” Dean said, expressing doubt she would see Santa.
“I just didn’t expect a Santa at my door,” she said.

Santa’s $50 Christmas gift will go to her children, 13-year-old Destiny and 11-year-old Summer Morton, she said.
Reports of the secret Santa have spread through Sedalia. Melody Collins heard about Santa’s activities from a friend, who suggested they try to find Santa.
“I said, ‘I wouldn’t go looking for the secret Santa. The secret Santa has to come to you,’ ” she said.

Santa knocked on Collins’ door Friday morning.
“It’s a real blessed day. We need more people like this. It’s amazing,” Collins said after she too received a $50 bill and gave Santa a hug.

Santa also surprised Carla Hertel, 43, with a knock on her door.
“That was totally unexpected,” Hertel said after she received her gift.
The money will either go to Christmas presents — Hertel has two children, Emma, 12, and Lucas, 4 — “or to keep the electricity or something on,” she said.

The Santa’s good deeds are patterned after Kansas City’s secret Santa, businessman Larry Stewart, who died of cancer after nearly 26 years of handing out $100 bills during the Christmas season. Another secret Santa has taken over since Stewart’s death in January 2007.
The Sedalia Santa said she’s thought about becoming a secret Santa for years.
This year, she decided to do it.
“It was in my head and in my heart,” she said.

She said she hopes the secret Santa story spreads hope.
“Whether they get something from Secret Santa or not, it gives them hope,” she said. “I know $50 isn’t going to do a lot, but it’s not inconsequential.”

The best part is seeing the joy in parents who receive money so they can give to their kids, she said.
Santa made the rounds to homes and businesses throughout Sedalia — along with Heeren, Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond, and Sedalia Police Sgt. Brad Beard.

Beula Ziegs, of California, received $50 from Santa on Friday while she was shopping at the Salvation Army Thrift Store.
She knows just where the money is going, too — to supplement a gift to a cancer patient with a young family.
Ziegs, a nurse at the University of Missouri Hospital, said she and her colleagues are putting their resources together to help the family.
“They have a young child and they need it so bad,” she said.
The secret Santa cheer may be spreading.

Sedalia resident and Salvation Army Thrift Store employee Wellene Hardy, 64, was eating lunch Thursday in her car when a man in a red sweatshirt knocked on her window.
He slipped a $20 bill into her car and left after she asked his name.
“He didn’t say a word ... I just figured he was a secret Santa,” she said.
“The Lord is sure good. I had $4 in my purse,” she said. “You don’t know where your blessing is coming from.”