GREENSBURG, In.(Fox 59, Haley Bull)— A little girl’s Christmas list released in a balloon was found and fulfilled by ‘Santa’s helpers’ states away.
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it,” 3-year old Landree’s father, Corey Londeree, said.
It’s a tradition at Carousel Play and Learn Center in Greensburg for children to write want they want to Santa, attach it to a balloon and release it. Landree wrote she wanted puzzles, markers and pencils.
But to their surprise, this time the school got a response. The package was filled with markers and pencils signed “Santa’s Helpers.”
The card read, “We found your note this morning on our walk in Woolford, Maryland. We have been Santa’s helpers for 60 years! We love Christmas! Enjoy these markers and pencils at your school!”
“I actually read the card and it kind of brought me to tears a little bit,” Chelsey Ryle, the executive director at Carousel Play and Learn Center, said.
Ryle said in the past a balloon has landed in Pennsylvania, but she believes this is the farthest one of their lists has traveled. The card was sent from nearly 700 miles away in a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore called Woolford. That’s where we found “Santa’s Helpers.”
“We love Christmas and I’m a retired teacher, school counselor, and Santa’s helper,” Steve and Deborah White said.
The couple said they originally thought it was a piece of trash when their puppy, Bindi, picked up the note while on their morning walk. But when they took a closer look they realized what they had found.
“I was kind of amazed that it made it the winds a loft all the way over to Maryland and survived that long, so it was pretty cool,” Steve White said.
“This is really surprising and exciting and I’m thrilled that we did it and I’ll remember it the rest of my life,” Deborah White said.
Landree’s father said she was just as excited to get the gift, even if she doesn’t fully comprehend it just yet.
“I just think it’s a really neat experience,” Londeree said. “Just very rare and really cool.”
Londeree said he plans to show her stories about this when she is a little older.
