That mall Santa you saw last weekend, don’t believe it for a minute. The real Santa is in Montana and he’s been very busy these past few weeks. With the help of a few of his best elves, he’s presented 2,600 books to children in 10 elementary schools throughout the state.When we spoke to him this week, Santa, aka Charlie Jerke (as in beef, not annoying guy), was getting ready to head off to the last of the 10 schools on his list. “About 60 percent of the area is pretty wealthy,” he said, “and the other 40 percent is living below the poverty level. For some of these kids, the book I give them is their only possession. I’ve had kids ask me, ‘Is this really for me?’ as I hand them their book. ‘Can I keep this?’ They can’t believe it.”
Jerke told us of going to a special-needs class. “One little girl, she’s in very tough shape. She’d never spoken and is in the fetal position, but the teachers got her straightened around so she could see me. She looked right at me and said, ‘Santa.’ We were all crying.”
Three years ago Jerke approached Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, and asked them to choose and order 900 books appropriate for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.
The fine folks at Chapter One were happy to help. They carefully chose the best contemporary and classic titles and sold them to Santa at a considerable discount. The Greater Ravalli Foundation of Montana funds the project.
With books sorted and wrapped, Santa suited up—that white beard’s for real, by the way—and headed off to deliver the books to K-5 children in the local school system. The project was so successful those first years, this year Jerke expanded his book-giving territory to include all of the Bitterroot Valley.
“I wish you could come with me today and see what happens when I show up at a school,” Jerke said. We wish we could, too. By all accounts, he WOWs the kids. After making an appearance at Grantsdale Elementary School, principal Kathleen Dent phoned Shawn Wathen at Chapter One. “She said Santa’s appearance was a monstrous success,” Wathen says. “The kids were so excited about it and amazed to see Santa handing out books. Even the fifth graders, trying to look cool, couldn’t hide their excitement.”
“I see a child and I’m in that red suit and I get down and talk to them,” Jerke says. “They talk differently to Santa than they do to their parents. Yesterday one boy asked me for one pair of socks. Not a toy, one pair of socks.”
“These little people are our future,” he says. If it’s true that books open up worlds, then Santa is giving the world to the children of Montana.
So, we salute Charlie Jerke of Montana, for reminding us—tis better to give than receive.
