Friday, Dec. 26, 2008

Christmas elves surprise Olathe family with gift

Less than two hours before the clock struck midnight to usher in Christmas 2008, Sharon Beggs got an unexpected gift.

Sharon expected to receive a gift for her daughter Catherine, who after suffering injuries in a wreck last summer, no longer has the use of her arms and legs.

What Sharon didn’t expect was a gift for herself.

It was a padlock. The gift may seem small, but what it will locked serves a far greater purpose for her and her family.

Sharon’s husband Greg, a long-time biology teacher and football coach at Olathe North, died unexpectedly in February after being diagnosed with meningitis and encephalitis.

Greg spent a month in the hospital after doctors gave him the diagnosis. He began to recover and even left the intensive care unit at the University of Kansas Medical Center. An infection, however, placed him back in the ICU, and he died less than a week later.

Then in July, the day before her 26th birthday, Catherine “Kiki” Beggs, was in a motorcycle accident that would put her in the care of family.

*****

Sharon, a librarian at Pioneer Trail Junior High School in Olathe, received a phone call Monday from Jerry Banks, who taught with Greg Beggs at Olathe North. Banks asked Sharon if there was anything she needed because she may get a call from The Elves of Christmas Present, a group of anonymous volunteers who help make dreams come true for a few area residents each Christmas.

She didn’t really know, but started thinking. Kiki needed a phone that could connect to her wheelchair and would allow her to access the house telephone, her cell phone and the Internet to keep in touch with family and friends

Sharon also needed access to her garage. After her home was remodeled with donated materials by a group of volunteers in November to accommodate Kiki, it became a storage area.

Some furniture, tools, unused materials and other items cluttered the garage.

It also didn’t help that Greg, a do-it-yourself-type guy, kept everything, always thinking he could find a purpose for anything cast aside, Sharon said.

Those things also piled up.

About a half-hour later, Sharon got another call, from an Elf. She told the Elf about the phone for Kiki and the garage. The phone seemed like a done deal, but beyond that, Sharon had no expectations.

*****

A caravan of 13 cars, led by a moving truck made its way to Sharon’s home about 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The Elves parked. Only Chief Elf and a Senior Elf entered the house. The rest, about 40 of them, left their cars and gathered in front of her northwest Olathe home, making footprints in the snow were none were before.

They waited until Sharon opened her front door to greet them, now aware of her unexpected gift. The Elves would pack everything from her garage into the moving truck that would be unloaded at a storage facility and secured with the padlock.

“I really didn’t know this was going to happen,” she said. “I knew they had something for Catherine and that’s enough. I saw the cars in the street and I started screaming.

“I had no idea they’d take on this type of project on Christmas. I was so surprised.”

******

The Elves of Christmas Present have provided anonymous gifts all over the Kansas City metropolitan area since 1990. In that first year, seven members comprised the group and they had but one project, to create a miracle for seven children whose father had recently died in an accident.

Today the group boasts nearly 700 members in the metro and this year, they had 14 projects, many of which were completed in the early-morning hours of Christmas.

The Elves were contacted by Banks and others seeking assistance for Beggs and her family.

“It became evident, if there was anything we could to help, we needed to help,” said Chief Elf, who was one of the original seven members of the group and organizes its projects.

As some loaded the moving truck and others packed boxes, an Elf, who was working his 15th Christmas, said in his second or third year, dressed as Santa Claus, he was putting a bag of toys under a tree for a little girl who’s terminal illness wasn’t likely to allow her to make it another year.

The Elf said he made too much noise and accidentally woke the little girl, who got out of bed to investigate. When she saw him, the Elf said, she rushed toward him and hugged him around the legs. Standing outside later that night, thinking about the girl, the Elf said he cried.

“That’s the reason I keep doing this,” he said. “Because of that little girl.”

An Elf, who is married to one of the original seven, said it’s become a tradition to spend Christmas Eve helping others.

“It helps redirect the focus to what Christmas is really about,” she said. “Giving gifts to those who need them.”

She added that one of the neatest thing about the group was so many of its members were people who were assisted in the past.

*****

Shortly after 11 p.m., the Elves finished loading what had piled up in Sharon’s garage into the moving truck that went to the storage facility the Elves rented Sharon for a year. The now empty garage would allow space for a car to park there instead of outside, which it had done so far this winter.

Sharon was given the key to the storage garage. “Merry Christmas” messages and some hugs and thank yous were exchanged, the only reciprocity the Elves needed before they left.

Some went home, some went to one of the other four projects that hadn’t yet been carried out.

Sharon said she hoped she could one day repay the gift she received.

“It’s just incredible and I hope I can give back to them,” Sharon said. “To see the impact they’ve had on my life, I can only imagine what they’ve done for others. It’s truly humbling. It shows the goodness of people.”

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