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Monday, December 29, 2008
Elf Louise
Louise Locker, aka Elf Louise, is dedicated to making children's wishes come true. She has given 40 years of joy and generosity. Last week during Christmas Elf Louise and her 4,000 volunteers wrapped gifts and put on 225 Santa suits and brought gifts to 21,700 children of 5,800 families in the San Antonio area.
Elf Louise was once anonymous but a local reporter, against Louise Lockers wishes to remain anonymous, told the city and world who she was and that she started the program as a 19 year old college student who actually was inspired by a Johnny Carson Show where Johnny read letters delivered to the post office for Santa from kids who wanted, but probably would not recieve, much for Christmas.
The next day in December of 1969 Elf Louise went to her post office in San Antonio and asked if she could read letters delivered to Santa so she might be able to find little girls who would like some of the dolls she had been given over the years but that were now just stacked up at home.
From this humble beginning more than one million children have now been visited by Elf Louise and Santa. The effort now has an annual budget of $300,000 and ninety-six percent of funds collected goes to buying toys for kids.
Louise Locker, aka Elf Louise, is now a private practice therapist in San Antonio who by her own admission is either a starry-eyed dreamer and optimist or both. But we know that more than one million gifts to children at Christmas over 40 years has provided a difference in the lives of many children who always believed that Santa would come and he did by many random acts of kindness from the volunteers and the personal effort of a once 19 year old college student who was inspired to give and to keep giving.
A side note: One never knows when any act of kindness will expend into millions of acts of kindness. We thank Elf Louise for her projects but reflect upon the fact that Johnny Carson inspired her actions. We not only should be those who extend acts of kindness but one who also inspires others to be kind to our fellow man.