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Letters to Santa come to life in Wetumpka

By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer

It started just as an idea a few years ago to bring the Christmas spirit to children. A letter to Santa answered with a ‘Golden Ticket’ and more.

The idea started with ZAP Pest Control’s Frank Bertarelli wanting to get people, especially children excited about Christmas. Bertarelli took an old mailbox and refurbished it. They solicited children to put letters to Santa in it. Then make some of the wishes happen with Santa delivering a toy from the list.

“When the kid drops the letter off in the mailbox, they start getting the feeling that this is Christmas,” Bertarelli said. My letter is going to Santa. It is part of the whole process.”

Bertarelli would find the mailbox but it took some persuasion and work to be able to set it up at his Highway 231 business.

“I found this old mailbox at a thrift store junk yard in the middle of nowhere and run over by a truck,” Bertarelli said. “I haggled with the guy. He didn’t want to sell it to me. It was nothing but scrap, junk. I told him what my plan was. He waited until I drove all the way back home and called me. ‘You got my heart, come get it.’”

Bertarelli would go to work on the scrapped mailbox.

“Beating it, pounding it back out, putting new rivets in it,” Bertarelli said.

Within two weeks Bertarelli would bring on Mark Presnell at Mark’s Service Center.

“He finished it up,” Bertarelli said. “He rewelded some of the bad spots on it. Fixed the door on and painted it. Publication Press put the stickers on it.”

Now the “ole timey mailbox” is set up in front of Santa’s Workshop hoping children will drop off letters to Santa.

“The kids put the letter in the mailbox and get to look in Santa’s Workshop,” Bertarelli said. “It’s full of toys. It gets the Christmas spirit going.”

But that is only the beginning. Bertarelli said Santa’s elves remove the letters from the box and post videos on ZAP’s Facebook page. The letters are delivered to the North Pole and Santa will respond next week inviting children to a special party where a toy on the list will be delivered.

“When they get the letter in the mail from Santa they will get a golden ticket,” Bertarelli said. “That golden ticket will invite them to a location to see Santa Claus and see Santa’s workshop.”

The golden ticket theme is carrying over into Bertarelli’s Christmas on the Coosa float.

“This year our float theme is Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with the Golden Ticket,” Bertarelli said.

At a secret location in a couple weeks children and their parents will also be served Domino’s pizza along with a gift from the list.

Bertarelli said he gets some help from others including the Elmore County Resource Center. He also works with the Alabama Department of Human Resources to help underserved children but the program is open to anyone in Elmore County. And boy has the program grown. The first year was 2020 during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bertarelli said there were about 20 kids. Last year, there were about 43 families.

“Some of the families had five kids.” Bertarelli said. “We were up to like 122 kids. This year we are already over 400 kids. It’s growing.”

The last day to get on Santa’s list at ZAP is Dec. 1 to allow elves to make the magic happen for a Christmas party just over two weeks later. To help Bertarelli has enlisted the Christmas on the Coosa Queens who are helping with toy drives to go along with the event. The Queens will also be there on delivery day to help out other special guests at the Christmas party.

“We feed the kids and they get to see Santa Claus,” Bertarelli said. “We had Batman here last year. He will probably be back this year as he was a big hit. Santa Claus will give them one of the toys on the list.”

“I have been writing some grants to try to help make it happen too,” Greene said. “We are taking it step by step, trying to do small projects within larger projects.”

Greene said Main Street hopes the project helps spur more in downtown Wetumpka.

“It is an under-utlized space that we could make use of,” Greene said. “It tells a story of Wetump- ka’s geological features such as the fall line. We want to use it as a catalyst to start additional investments in downtown.”

SHOP SMALL Greene is also promoting Main Street Wetumpka’s Shop Small program. The idea is to get people to shop in small businesses on days in addition to Small Business Saturday on Nov. 26 because of the Iron Bowl.

“We are trying to encourage people to

But the work hasn’t stopped. The students and staff at Wetumpka Elementary School will continue growing winter crops and when spring arrives, will grow something else.

Wetumpka Elementary School Principal Gigi Hankins welcomes the “dirty” laboratory to her school.

“Our classroom gardens have been a powerful opportunity to enrich learn- shop small and keep the money local,” Greene said. “We are trying to hit that hard just because small business Saturday is Nov. 26, which is also the Iron Bowl. I’m trying to do small business Saturday, this Saturday, the next Saturday and the next Saturday because we don’t really have a great turnout for Small Business Saturday because of the Iron Bowl. We try to encourage people to shop the Saturday before and the Saturday after as well.” ing for our students through hands-on experiences,” Hankins said. “Students have been excited about their work in the garden from digging, planting, watering and now harvesting their crop and sharing it with the community food bank. It’s been an incredible adventure that many might never have, especially since gardening is not a common family activity anymore.”

But students at the school went one step further to help the Elmore County Food Pantry during the holiday season with hosting a food drive for non-perishable goods for the food pantry.

Chairman Tippy Hunter, General Manager Kaitlin Fleming, Managing Editor

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