A salute to these selfless year-round True Santas

 As I wrote in a blog post at this time last year, one of the best things that The Sun Chronicle, in its role as a community newspaper in Attleboro, MA --- where I was the local news editor, a columnist and editorial writer for nearly 30 years before retiring from my full-time position in March of 2017 --- does is to present its annual salute to volunteers at Christmastime.
Its True Santas --- which this year feature 16 people in 12 categories of volunteering in accordance with the 12 Days of Christmas --- stand as a truly timely reminder that our existence doesn’t depend on the negativism of cable news, social media and far too many self-serving and cutthroat politicians on both extremes of the political spectrum.
No, instead, our continued survival as a society depends on decent people who aren’t afraid to reach out and help others not just around Christmas, but also throughout the entire year ---- and that was never truer than during the height of the pandemic and now, when COVID-19, while being reduced, has not disappeared from our daily existence.
These True Santas featured in the Christmas Eve weekend edition (Saturday, Dec. 24-Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022 of The Sun Chronicle exemplify that positive phenomenon while also serving to personify the Christmas spirit at its purest.
It’s my pleasure to honor those True Santas by sharing their stories here.
Enjoy, and may these uplifting stories change your perspective on our precarious human condition.

Here's the link to the 2022 True Santas story in The Sun Chronicle.

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