Giving Away Money....Secret Santa in Phx ~~Distraught~~

In a way, this article is about someone giving away money but to those who are needy.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1221secretsanta1221.html

Secret Santa helps the Valley's needy A tradition that began with act of kindness comes to Phoenix

Judi Villa The Arizona Republic Dec. 21, 2006 12:00 AM

Mittie Trammel didn't have enough money to buy groceries, let alone Christmas presents for her grandchildren.

Then a stranger who said she was with "Santa" handed Trammel $200 in a Phoenix thrift store. Trammel, 70, burst into tears.

"This is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me," she said. "I sure needed it." advertisement

Trammel shook as she remembered waking up on Christmas morning as a kid and rushing to see what Santa had brought.

"I never stopped (believing)," she said. "I always knew there had to be something. There's a Santa Claus, and there's a God. . . . I'm just so grateful."

For four hours Wednesday, a mystery Santa and his elves cruised through Phoenix, anonymously doling out crisp $100 bills to those who needed a lift. Santa wanted to be known only as a 61-year-old businessman from Kansas City, Mo., but his "sleigh ride" is part of a tradition started by another Secret Santa 27 years ago.

"It's spontaneous and it's unexpected," Santa said.

"All we're doing is making (their life) better for one day."

All Santa asked in return is that recipients do something nice for someone else during the holidays.

At the Greyhound bus depot Wednesday, Santa zeroed in on Trace Bostick and his three children as they waited for the bus that would take them home to North Carolina.

Bostick was laid off around the time he sent his little ones to spend a couple of weeks with their grandma in Phoenix. Three months passed before he could get another job and scrounge up the money to come back for them.

"I've been fighting just as hard as I can to get them back home," Bostick said. "It took almost everything I had just to get out here to get them and get them back."

When the man who called himself Santa began peeling off $100 bills, Bostick's eyes filled with tears. He almost couldn't speak.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" asked Bostick's oldest son, Gabriel, 5.

"Thank you, Jesus," Bostick said. "It's 'cause I'm happy. . . . This couldn't have come at a better time."

Santa disappeared as quickly as he came, leaving Bostick and others wondering: Who was that man?

Needing a helping hand

The story actually starts in 1971, when Larry Stewart found himself homeless, penniless and hungry in Mississippi. Turned away at a local church, Stewart went to a diner and ordered a breakfast he couldn't pay for. He waited for the crowd to thin, then put on what he thought was an Academy Award-winning performance about losing his wallet.

The owner, who also was the cook, came over, reached under his stool and appeared to pick something up.

"Son," he said, "you must have dropped this."

It was a $20 bill.

"I knew I hadn't dropped it, but I thought, 'Thank you, Lord,' " Stewart said. "(That $20) absolutely changed my life in a heartbeat," he said.

Stewart paid the bill, pushed his car into a gas station, filled the tank and headed west with feelings of guilt and gratitude.

"It was an answer to my prayers," Stewart said. "I made a promise to God right then and there that if I was ever in a position to help someone else, I would do that."

Paying it forward

Stewart got his first chance in 1979, when he gave $20 to a carhop and told her to keep the change. Laid off just weeks before Christmas and with only $600 in the bank, Stewart withdrew $200 in $5 and $10 bills and handed it out to people who looked like they needed it.

A month later, Stewart's company gave him his job back. And by the end of 1982, he'd made his first million. He began handing out $100 bills.

For more than two decades, Stewart has given money anonymously at Christmastime on the streets of Kansas City and places like New York City, San Diego, Virginia and Florida, where people's lives have been touched by tragedies from shootings to wildfires to terrorist attacks. Last year, after Hurricane Katrina, he went to Mississippi.

"He just finds the areas and goes in and spreads Christmas cheer," said Larry McCormick, a retired FBI agent and one of Santa's elves.

Over the years, Stewart has given out more than $1 million of his own money. He never took a tax break.

And he remained anonymous until this year, when a tabloid threatened to reveal his identity, and Stewart came forward first.

"I never wanted it to be about me," said Stewart, 58, who was diagnosed in April with esophageal cancer. "It's just about the act itself and how blessed it is to give and receive."

Spreading the wealth

Stewart is training four other Santas across the country to carry on the giving, and he hopes his story inspires others to commit their own random acts of kindness, even small things that don't involve money.

"I don't plan on this ending at all," Stewart said.

This year, Stewart and his four trainee Santas are giving away $175,000 of their own money in four U.S. cities, including Phoenix.

Although Stewart's identity may be known, his helpers, like the Santa who came to Phoenix, still want to remain anonymous.

"If a bunch of strangers can do this in Phoenix, anybody can, whether it's $1 or a kind word," Santa said.

About $10,000 was given away in Phoenix. Santa said he wanted to provide "a little uplifting" after the "Baseline Killer" terrorized residents with a 13-month spree of murders, rapes and robberies.

"It's just a way of giving back," said Steve Chenoweth, a retired FBI agent and one of Santa's elves.

"It just absolutely changes people's lives," Chenoweth said. "There's no caveats. There's no attachments, no nothing. We just hand it out and say, 'Merry Christmas.' "

Gary Lauterbach, 56, was down to his last $40 when Santa walked up to him outside a laundry.

Lauterbach was laid off last month and just got notice that his electricity was going to be shut off. Santa handed him $200.Does he believe in Santa?

"I do now," Lauterbach said.

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Several people stared in disbelief at the money. Lunaly Bustillos, 14, tried to give it back.

"I didn't know him, and I thought it was fake," she said. "He's really generous."

Along his journey, Santa hopped onto a bus and handed out $100 bills to 12 people onboard.

He gave to mothers picking up their children from school and to soldiers at the bus depot.

At a Wal-Mart, he sent three Phoenix police officers inside to pay for the groceries of families in the checkout line.

"I think I might faint," said a woman working at a thrift store.

A week ago, Traci Zamarron, 37, packed her three children into a van and headed to Phoenix from Iowa to escape an abusive relationship. Zamarron looked for help in the Valley but couldn't find much.

She moved into a one-bedroom apartment with her children and her mother. On Tuesday, the van was towed with all their stuff inside. The cost just to retrieve the belongings: $75. It would be $150 if they wanted the van back, too.

Zamarron's mother, Nancy Wells, wanted to cry when Santa gave the family $300.

"There is a God in Phoenix," Wells said. "We're trying to continue up a little at a time. This is going to help us do something."

"Oh, my goodness. I can't believe this is true," Zamarron said. "We were down to nothing, down to zero. Now we're going to have a merry Christmas."

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