A number of years ago I wrote an article for Reader’s Digest magazine about a lovely woman on Long Island named Laurie Bloom. Bloom had decided to help people who wanted to do something good for the holidays by collecting the “Dear Santa” letters that get sent to the New York Post Office (the same one as featured in “Miracle on 34th Street”), and distributing them to those who wanted to send gifts to needy families in the New York regions. FYI, there are “Dear Santa” programs in a number of other postal service locations around the country, including Boston, Cincinnati and San Francisco.

(For more on what she accomplished, here’s a New York Times’ article about Bloom’s good deeds along with an HTML version of a PDF that reprints my Reader’s Digest story–unbylined, unfortunately. Search the document for Bloom’s name.)

After writing that story I felt compelled to contribute to Bloom’s efforts, and for a couple of years running I had her send me a letter so I could help. It was so cool to discover that, after my shopping and wrapping, when I brought my package to the UPS Store for shipping, they would be able to make the return address read “North Pole.” (UPS Stores are also a drop-off location for Toys for Tots donations. Here are some other ways that frugal-minded folks like you and me can make toy donations this holiday season.)

So imagine how sad I was to read this week that USPS locations across the country had to shut down the “Dear Santa” program because someone who shouldn’t have been trying to reach out to children attempted to use this philanthropic program to do so. (This is a PG blog so I’ll let you read this New York Times story to find out exactly what happened.) Now because this bad person did this, there won’t be any other “Dear Santa” letters being delivered to good souls anywhere in the country this year. And the USPS isn’t sure when the program will resume because it needs to figure out how to safely deliver “Dear Santa” goodies in the future without putting a child’s safety at risk–and rightly so.

Here’s what I think should happen: get community houses of worship involved and put that church’s address as to where the “Dear Santa” packages should be delivered. Of course, put the family or the child’s name on there “in care of,” and then the families that participated will know when and where to go to get their package. This won’t put anyone at risk, and it will ensure that the “Dear Santa” program will continue to live on.

In the meantime I’ll repeat what I wrote in an earlier blog posting about not forgetting good causes this holiday season–even if the money is tight. That is as you food shop and stock up on items when they’re on sale (the best way to remain true to your frugal food-shopping budget), buy a few extra items that you can bring to your local food pantry.

If money is tight for you, imagine how tight it is for the poorest among us who rely on food pantries to help feed their families. And so many food pantries are serving so many more families, putting an extra strain on these good causes themselves. No wonder that a group of New Jersey bloggers banded together to save some Garden State food pantries, and part of the finale on this week’s “The Biggest Loser” on NBC was a pound-for-pound challenge that ties in with Feeding America. That is, when you lose a pound, “The Biggest Loser” donates 10 cents to this good cause.

We may all be frugal but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be philanthropic.