For the 24th year, Fredonia’s Information Technology Services Department will collaborate with DFT Communications and many community volunteers to donate their time and expertise and bring “Talk to Santa” once again into the homes of local viewers. Santa and his assistant, Elf Holly, are assisted from their North Pole television studio by a local crew of TV and phone elves to provide this special holiday program for area children.
The TV show was the brainchild of the late staffer Ron Warren, who began making plans for the show before his death in November 1991.
The live call-in show will be presented on Dec. 17 and 18, beginning at 6:30 p.m. each evening. It will be shown on Time Warner Cable channels 5 and 17 in Brocton, Cassadaga, Fredonia, and Stockton, and on channel 19 in Dunkirk, Silver Creek, Forestville and Hanover.
For two nights, children and their families can tune in to watch Santa and Elf Holly take live phone calls from viewers who want to let Santa know what they would like for Christmas. Area children simply need to dial 679-XMAS (9627) to talk to Santa live.
DFT Communications will provide a special “Santa Claus Line” that organizers expect will receive more than 300 calls during the two-day program.
Children throughout the county will be able to tell Santa about their special wishes this Christmas. These wishes are not always about toys. Sometimes it’s to bring a soldier home safely or to wish that someone recovers from an illness.
Local area schools cooperate by encouraging first and second grade children to write letters that may be read on the show as time permits.
The program originates from Thompson Hall on the Fredonia campus. “Talk to Santa” coordinator Colin Plaister joins Marcia Merrins, Steven Keefe, Adam Pellittieri, Andrea Wasiura, Bob Scott, Brad Markham, Charley Mancuso, Chip Riewaldt, Debbie Ormsby, Denise Maze, Doug Johnson, Elizabeth Curtin-O’Brien, John Malcolm, Laura Sarek, Lisa Eikenburg, Lotte Morse, Michelle Twitchell, Paula Arntz, Steve O’Brien, T. John McCune and Senior Advisor Tom Sullivan.
