Supporting Families Beyond December, A Conversation with Karen DiCarlo, Santa Claus Inc.

Karen DiCarlo, Executive Director of Santa Claus Inc., discussed the organization's history and impact on San Bernardino County's children. Founded in 1952, Santa Claus Inc. serves about 244,000 children annually through various programs, including Christmas distributions, foster youth support, and emergency assistance. DiCarlo highlighted new initiatives like Operation Comfort for Kids and Santa's Good Deed Depot. Funding comes from grants, private donors, and partnerships with organizations like Delivering Good and Good360. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, the organization continues to grow, with plans for a VIP reception on November 13 to showcase their work.

https://santaclausinc.com/

Email:  karen.dicarlo@santaclausinc.com 

Early Education and Development webpage:
https://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/index.php/en/ess-2019/early-education-and-development

Music by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay - Where the Light Is

Transcript

Santa Claus Inc.

SPEAKERS

Ana Garcia, Karen Dicarlo, Nancy Sherod

Ana Garcia  00:09

 Hello, everyone. This is Anna, Garcia and Nancy

Nancy Sherod  00:12

Nancy Sherod, and we want to thank you for tuning in to another episode of tomorrow's readiness starts today, 

Ana Garcia  00:17

As always. This is a time where we dive into topics and visit with individuals who are supporting San Bernardino County's zero to eight year olds through their community outreach and educational supports. 

Nancy Sherod  00:26

So today we're excited. We have a very special guest joining us from Santa Claus Incorporated. Karen DiCarlo, thanks for joining us today.

Karen Dicarlo  00:33

Thanks for having me. 

Nancy Sherod  00:35

Great Well, we're gonna jump right in. We're gonna jump right in. Talk about all the fun things. So let's just start with a little bit about you. Tell us about you. Tell us about yourself. Tell us how you ended up at Santa Claus Incorporated. How many years I know you've got a fun story to share.

Karen Dicarlo  00:49

Well, yes, I started actually volunteering for Santa Claus Inc in around around 1984 when my daughters and I were in tik tokers national charity. 

Nancy Sherod  01:01

I did that with my daughter. Yes. Very fun, yes.

Karen Dicarlo  01:05

So we used to make layettes for babies. And I remember going to a store called Baby news on Highland Avenue and buying really cute little things. And I I took, you know, I would take the layettes into the warehouse, the Santa Claus warehouse, and one morning, I went in, and one of the vice presidents was there, and she was kind of probing me, and she said, you know, we don't have a Christmas tree lane, Chairman, that's our big fundraising event. Well, I really had never been to Christmas tree lane, but I said, Okay, I'll do it. 

Nancy Sherod  01:44

Why not? Let's go.

Karen Dicarlo  01:47

I didn't really understand what I was getting myself into, because it's a huge event and but it was very successful. And then I became president of the organization. I worked with the founder, Mignon Switzer. She was actually on my board, and I I was president for about 10 years, and then I took a little break. My husband got involved in a minor league baseball team, so I am on the road to do community relations. So I was away from Santa Claus for a couple years, came back, met up with some ladies, some of the older ladies that were volunteers, and they said, Would you please come back to Santa Claus? So I did. Became president again, and then in 24 2011 during strategic planning, the board decided that they needed to somebody needed to be in charge so we could start applying for grants. So they asked me if I'd be Executive Director, and again, I said, okay, sure, yeah, whole lot different than being the president, believe me. So I took on that responsibility in 2012 and since then, the organization's grown about 1300% 

Nancy Sherod  03:02

Wow, wow, great. 

Ana Garcia  03:05

That's great So for our listeners, what is Santa Claus? Inc? 

Karen Dicarlo  03:09

Santa Claus Inc, is the the by one year, the oldest, second oldest, nonprofit charity for children in the Inland Empire assistance League of San Bernardino beat us by one year. Just one Yes, just one that assistance. So we were founded in 1952 by a Jewish lady named Mignon Switzer, and she owned a department store called Switzer, and it was across the street from Harris company, and at Christmas time, kids were parents would line up on the on the sidewalk to get stuff for their kids. And Mignon thought that was very demeaning. So as the community leader that she was, she went out and got 200 businesses, local businesses behind her, and started Santa Claus Inc, and in those early years, they served maybe the first year, maybe 1000 children, and it's grown from there. 

Nancy Sherod  04:10

So what would you say your number of children you're serving these days? 

Karen Dicarlo  04:12

Last year, we served about 244,000

Nancy Sherod  04:17

and when you say, serve, can you talk through that? Talk through some of the programs. Talk through some of how are we taking care of the kids throughout our community?

Karen Dicarlo  04:24

We take care of all kids we have, of course, we have our signature Christmas distribution. Through that program, we work with San Bernardino City, unified, Colton, Rialto, Redlands, Fontana, Yucaipa, Calimesa, school districts, districts we work with a lot, and thanks to San Bernardino City, unified Victor Hernandez in the community, I can't think of the the name of the his the office he's in anyway. He developed an online application process for us. So this year, we're sending out 35,000 QR codes in all the districts and welfare. And we think we'll probably through that distribution. We'll probably have about a 30% no show, so maybe around 20,000 kids will receive Christmas presents. The parents are doing the shopping. The kids aren't allowed. That's because it's from Santa Claus, right? I mean, we have programs that serve foster youth up through college, through the Renaissance program at Cal State San Bernardino, we help children who are taken out of their homes by CPS, those children that are going into foster homes or changing foster homes. We have a program called belongings, and we provide whatever they need. Work with homeless. Of course, through the Atlas program, we we have a special program that's an Emergency Assistance Program, and the new program that I just, we're just working on, and I have to read it because I just named it yesterday,

Nancy Sherod  06:11

hot off the presses. 

Karen Dicarlo  06:11

it is operation comfort for kids. It's a referral program from the schools, and it's the purpose, is to provide something that a child really needs. If a kid doesn't have a coat or a kid doesn't have shoes, that's the purpose. The counselor can fill out a form, and we'll make sure to get, you know, to fill those orders within a week. Oh, wow. The emergency program is designed only for children who are in emergency situations, the death of a parent or a family member, a house fire. In that case, we can turn around whatever that kid needs in a day, and that's through the schools and law enforcement, and we have Branches of Honor where we work a lot to help young military families. We were just at 29 palms. What's today? Today's Tuesday, last Friday, doing a big baby shower. Oh, wow. We work a lot with Camp Pendleton, and we provide a lot of, you know, Home Goods, bedding, toys, whatever you can think of, for young military families. So those are, let me make sure that I have I'm not missing. Oh, we have the Gift of Reading with Santa Program right now with San Bernardino City Unified, and Santa Claus has been since the first of October, taking going to two to three preschools, pre preschools, pre K and K classrooms, and talking to kids about being good, being, you know, helping others. And each kid gets a toy, and we found the cutest. We had the cutest smish Smash mellows, oh, those squishmallows in storage, and they're Santa Clauses, and they're so cute, and we have enough for two months worth of his visits. Wow. So Santa goes to classrooms, dances in the classrooms every single more, every single weekday morning.

Nancy Sherod  08:24

What an amazing what an amazing job. I kind of want to tag along with Santa Claus one day just to go see all the good Santa is doing with the little people.

Karen Dicarlo  08:34

And then we adopt the poor schools. Of course, if, if there's a school that's and there's a lot of them, yeah, that are the kids are all, well, there's some that most of the kids are homeless. Then we'll go in with us. Sock cops will provide. We provide whatever they need very in those schools, and that's mostly in San Bernardino City, unified, okay, yeah. And then our outreaches are huge. We do a lot of outreaches. Like to hospitals, because we get a lot of medical, medical type equipment. We do outreaches to literally anybody who needs something for children. We have two new brand new programs coming up that I'm working with Sandra Rodriguez on. One is called Santa's Good Deed Depot. Okay, that was Sandra's idea. Now this is this ties in with adopting schools. We will provide small gifts for kids, for their stores and school stores schools can decide how they want to distribute them if they want to do you know, best attendance for being a good student, then they get points, and then they can go and buy some of the items for their families. Very cool. So we love that. Yeah, and then Santa's Family Engagement Academy is a new one that we'll be developing in January. That's where counseling will be done with parents. They'll go through a program, and once they finish a program, they get a certificate from San Bernardino City Unified. And then they come to Santa Claus Inc, and they will receive they can choose something for their family. 

Nancy Sherod  10:16

 Very fantastic. That's great. So that's a lot being offered. So how can it sounds like you're working with some districts. So if I'm a social worker that's out in the field looking for ways to support or I'm an a district that might not be one you mentioned, or I'm just anyone that's a child care provider throughout our county, how can they get more information? How can they connect with you?

Karen Dicarlo  10:39

That's an easy question, because we have a huge outreach through our board of directors. We have Dr Serena betters County Schools. And you know how Serena is? She's out. She's

Nancy Sherod  10:55

going there and getting it done,

Karen Dicarlo  10:56

yeah, Dr Barbara sorter from Riverside County Office of Education. She's the executive, Executive Director for all the special needs programs. So our outreach in Riverside County is easy. We serve Ontario, Montclair School District. We go out as far as Needles, Mecca. We go the high desert, the low desert, wherever there's a need, they always seem to know how to find us. Okay, yeah.

Nancy Sherod  11:27

So the best place to email are they can email

Karen Dicarlo  11:31

me at Karen.DiCarlo@santaclausinc.com, and clause doesn't have any they can call 909-880-5090, okay. And we'll get back in touch with them.

Nancy Sherod  11:45

That's fantastic.

Karen Dicarlo  11:46

We're easy to find and very easy to find.

Nancy Sherod  11:49

That's great. Is there a website that they can go to? 

Karen Dicarlo  11:51

Yeah, santaclausinc.org, 

Nancy Sherod  11:53

perfect, perfect. So all sorts of fun places to get information and get connected if they're looking to support. Yeah, sounds like you guys are doing some fun stuff. Yeah, yeah.

Ana Garcia  12:03

Karen, where does your funding come from? If you don't mind sharing like on this, on right? 

Nancy Sherod  12:09

there's a lot going on well, and if someone out there wants to support, if someone wants to help with that,

Karen Dicarlo  12:16

 yes. Well, of course, we, we write grants. We do have, we get some really nice grants. We were just approved for San Manuel. That's an every other year grant. Now San Manuel is, is a great partner. They love us and we love them because we used to provide their toys when they were kids and living in those back trailers. So they've always been very kind to us. The Jack H Brown family foundation, they've been very kind to us. They named us their hero of the heartland five years ago. So Stater Brothers, charities In and Out. Burger, just a lot of different grantors. We have private donors who help us. And of course, we're always looking for money, right? You're doing good works organization out there. It's been harder to come by since COVID. I really COVID changed things the couple two years after COVID, were really tough with fundraising. It seems like it might be picking up a little bit now, I hope, but we're always looking for new grants to write and new outreaches. We do have a for a reception coming up, a VIP reception on the 13th of November at our warehouse. And we'll be all we're going to be all decked out. We're going to look all nice and

Nancy Sherod  13:56

glamorous. Glamorous. Look really glamorous,

Karen Dicarlo  14:00

even though right now it looks like a dump, because that's where we were, our warehouse will be all fixed up really nice, and we invite people to come in and take a look at what we do and how we do it, because all of this is done out of a 6000 square foot warehouse and 35 seagoing can containers. Wow. So yes, so it's pretty amazing to see. 

Nancy Sherod  14:27

Oh, that's awesome. Well, you're doing lots of fun work. Do you have a memory? Do you have an event, a moment where you just knew you were doing exactly what you were supposed to be doing? And it just like, This is my moment. This is the smile that comes to my face when I think about the work I do

Karen Dicarlo  14:44

that's really hard. I think one thing, and it's not, it's not a moment, because there's so many. I think working with the volunteers is a huge highlight for me, because people the the. Volunteers at Santa Claus are amazing. Some of them work there until they die. I mean, you like, 50 years, yeah, that's awesome. So wow, there were, like, a family, and sometimes we lose family, and you know, that's a huge highlight for me. Is it easy to manage hundreds of volunteers, not always, because they all have different personalities. A lot of our volunteers take ownership of their departments. I love it. So, yeah, so I'm dealing I'm running a business, yet I'm running it with a lot of volunteers who really take ownership of it. So sometimes it can get a little bit hard, but we all love each other, so I think probably a highlight to me always is when we work directly with children. And I am really working hard this year to make sure we do a lot more that we just had a big event. We partnered with Toys for Tots. We had over 500 children there from San Bernardino City Unified. Each child got a new pair of Nikes or Vans. They got lots of toys. And some of the pictures of children are just amazing. Yeah, I think generally, working with all the people that I work with, those are the highlights. To me, 

Nancy Sherod  16:33

You get to do fun stuff. There's lots of great it's

Karen Dicarlo  16:36

exactly I've always felt like this is where I'm supposed to be.

Nancy Sherod  16:40

That's awesome. Anything else you want to make sure they hear? Anything you want to get the word out? What's your call to action to the people that are listening?

Karen Dicarlo  16:47

I think the call, you know, one thing I really want to get out there is, I understand our name, Santa Claus. Inc, right? There's no getting around and you don't change your name after 73 years. We just don't. But we're a year round organization. The bulk of what we do is not at Christmas, which is great. It's all year round. It's 365, days a year. And I think that is the message that I always try to get out because it's, oh, just another Christmas program. Well, we're not, yeah, you know, we have a great Christmas program, actually, to our signature program, and then our year round YES Program does distribution of pallets to other organizations. So we're supplying other organizations with the toys, for their their events. And then one question you didn't ask, and this is a biggie, how do we get all the stuff? 

Nancy Sherod  16:47

Yes, that's a good one. Let's ask that. How do you get all the stuff?

Karen Dicarlo  17:50

We have wonderful partnerships. It's taken a you know, building partnerships and collaborations takes time, but we have two major partners. One is called delivering good. They're in New York City. One's called good 360 and they're in Washington, DC, and we have built great relationships with them through those two organizations. One delivering good represents the toy industry and the clothing industries of America. So when a manufacturer has closeouts, whatever, then they'll contact delivering good. Then they contact their organizations. I think Santa Claus Inc is the only organization on the West Coast, okay, that partners with delivering good. So I pay a $10,000 admin fee a year, and for that fee, we receive, well, I don't know. They don't really seem to keep track, maybe $2 million worth of new product. It can be truckloads of Carter's children's clothing. It can be almost anything. And then good 360 through that organization, I can actually purchase truckloads of Amazon, generally for around $2,000 a truckload. Wow. And they're huge pallets, okay? And those, that's where we get all the housewares and all the bedding and all the other things that we're able to provide for families, and we share those with other organizations. So that's how, that's basically how we get about between $6 and $7 million worth of product every year to distribute.

Nancy Sherod  19:38

Wow, so many people are impacted by the work you're doing. Yeah, appreciate what you're doing.

Karen Dicarlo  19:43

We see them every day, every day, when I have my badge on in the grocery store, no matter where all of us, they say, Oh, when I was, you know, I love Santa Claus inc, when I was little, my mom got my stuff there, or I've got stuff for my children. There. So that's yeah and generations, yeah

Ana Garcia  20:05

That's so great. Karen. Thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing your passion all the great things that you're doing. Thank you so much.

Karen Dicarlo  20:12

Thank you. Well,

Nancy Sherod  20:14

that's a wrap for another episode. Make sure you join us again next month, where we will bring you more ways to support our county zero to eight year olds, as we always do, because tomorrow's readiness starts today.