Video: Tupelo’s ‘Silent Santa’ Sets Sights On 2015

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — Christmas has come and gone but Tupelo’s Silent Santa is planning to keep helping those in need in 2015. What began as an idea to help one family quickly grew to helping several families and providing Christmas for multiple children.

2014 was just the beginning for Tupelo’s Silent Santa.

The group, made up of around 10 people, remain anonymous to the public but their goal is clear.. to help families in need.

“None of us were looking for any recognition. There is a lot of groups that are more about recognition but this was more about the spirit of Christmas,” said one of Santa’s secret helpers.

Santa’s helpers got the word out about their efforts by leaving business cards like these around Tupelo.

They say earning people’s trust to donate has been the biggest challenge.

“It’s a step of humility to be able to give to a lot of people and not have your name on it and we wanted to see how many people we could get to donate if they didn’t know what they donating to, and so it was super interesting to see how many people would actually trust something like that,” said another one of Santa’s secret helpers.

In just over a month, Silent Santa raised more than $2,000. As more money was raised, the outreach grew.

“We raised enough money to give them a special Christmas and through the messaging group, we kept on seeing that money was coming up a little bit more and hey looks like we can help another family,” said Santa’s helper.

The secret elves packed their trunks full of gifts to be delivered Christmas Eve.

Two families even woke up Christmas morning to brand new swing sets in their back yard.

“Smiles on the people’s faces, Santa is real. I think good things happen to good people and that was the case with these families,” said Santa’s helper.

“We dropped off over 30 presents and then the swingset and we put them under the tree and I literally  felt like Santa Claus placing them under there so neatly,” said Santa’s helper.

Silent Santa’s mission during the 2014 Holiday season will now be carried over into the New Year.

“If situations arise over the year, that it would be great to have Silent Santa go help out. On the website we put, we will have Christmas in July, if we need to, if there’s a birthday, for someone and they need presents, or they need a party and they can’t get that otherwise, then yeah, we will be more than happy to do something like that,” added Santa’s helper.

For information on how to donate or be a part of Tupelo’s Silent Santa, visit their website at www.tupelosilentsanta.com