Founded by Linda Schneider in 1989, Santa’s Helpers Anonymous seeks to make a meaningful difference during the stressful holiday season. With her husband, Stuart "Topper" Crook and their daughters, Gretchen Bauer and Katelin Etoh and their families, what originally started as a family effort run out of a basement has grown from helping 10 to 1,000 families each year through word of mouth and no paid employees. 

 

This growth has been achieved by their perserverance that of the 100% volunteer support of the hundreds of “elves” that donate money and dedicate time to wrapping gifts, loading boxes of food, cooking turkeys and making deliveries Christmas Eve morning. In addition, Santa's Helpers has received help from a number of local and national businesses through free or discounted gifts, food, and warehouse space used to stage everything before delivery on Christmas Eve. As part of their mission, they have sought to maintain anonymity event when asked by TV giant, CNN to do a story, they have said, "No." In this vein, when recipients of Santa's generosity ask who they should thank, the answer is always..."Santa!"