A Season For Giving
12/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 19, 2002
By Jay Reddick
On Dec. 14, about 800 children from the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County area received gifts from Santa Claus. Granted, it was a little early for the jolly old elf to make his rounds, but for the children affected, the gifts and the gesture meant just as much as if the wrapping paper still had North Pole snow on it.
The gifts came as a result of the Santa's Helper program, which has provided for underprivileged children and their families during the last 17 holiday seasons. This Christmas, about 200 families received visits from Wake Forest student-athletes, staff members and volunteers dressed as Santa Claus.
The program was the brainchild of Chip Rives, who was a football player for the Deacons when he decided that helping was the right thing to do.
"Chip said from the beginning he wanted every child to have two new gifts," said Robert Egleston, who has been with Santa's Helper since the beginning. "The Santa Claus part was important to him, because if it's Santa at the door, it's not like a charity gift."
The program was originally based, Rives said, in the back of his own car.
"It started with me and a handful of volunteers driving my Volkswagen bus around at night on Dec. 23 and 24 (1986) delivering toys," Rives said. "To go back now and see a fleet of vans, all with logos and filled with Santas and volunteers, is amazing."
Rives, who was one of Sports Illustrated's "Sportsmen of the Year" in 1987, graduated from Wake Forest the next year, but has returned almost every December to help wrap and deliver gifts.
But as you might imagine, the presents won't fit in Rives' car anymore. The organizers search during the second half of the year for space to store and wrap the gifts. Often, local businesses have donated a warehouse or empty storefront for free to the organization. This year, the home base was the former Intimate Bookshop on Coliseum Drive.
"We used to wrap all the gifts in Robert's back yard and put them in his storage shed, next to the lawn mower," Rives said. "From that, it's become a big part of the Winston-Salem community, and that's pretty neat to see."
Santa's Helpers prove that it is better to give than to receive, but the group receives plenty, in the form of gifts and donations, all through the year in order that it might give to those less fortunate at the holidays.
"Because of our volunteer base, 97 percent of donations go to buy gifts for kids," said Julie Griffin, coordinator of the Wake Forest CHAMPS/Life Skills program which includes Santa's Helpers.
This year, the Wake Forest Santas and elves took a trip to Brenner Children's Hospital on Dec. 3 to bring cheer to sick children there. On Dec. 13, volunteers converged on Coliseum Drive to wrap more than 2,000 gifts.
The next day, for children all over Forsyth County, Santa came not down the chimney, but to the front door.