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By Heather Stauffer, Sentinel Reporter, Dec. 7, 2008

Last updated: Sunday, December 7, 2008 2:23 PM EST

Either Carlisle Area Healthcare Auxiliary has some very big favors to call in, or someone really likes those children.

For 20 years now, Santa Claus has been making the trek from the North Pole for the auxiliary’s annual thank-you breakfast for Carlisle Regional Medical Center employees and their children and grandchildren. And for most of those years, he has been bringing his wife with him.

“How are you doing, partner?” he asked Saturday, helping 5-year-old Ted Trimmer onto his big red knee.

“Good,” Ted said. He fingered the candy cane he had just been given, smiled obligingly for a Polaroid picture, and then launched eagerly into his wish list: Baseball cards, a baseball bat and Matchbox cars.

“They’re excited,” said Auxiliary President Denise Garman, smiling at the children. A lot of people volunteer to help with the event every year, she said, and it’s not hard to figure out that it’s because of the children.

“This just makes your Christmas,” Garman said.

Auxiliary Ways and Means Chairwoman Patricia Lehman, whose idea was the impetus behind the auxiliary’s first Breakfast With Santa, agreed. Sometimes it’s a little hard to get in the spirit of the season, she said, but then members don their red and green and the children come in, and “you feel it’s Christmas now.”

Thanks to support from the hospital staff and Carlisle Area Health and Wellness Foundation, Garman said, the auxiliary donated more than $40,000 for projects such as purchasing infant formula at Project SHARE and helping healthcare students pay for accredited programs.

The event has grown over the years, Lehman said, but the basic concept has remained the same. Accompanied by parents or grandparents, the children show up and have doughnuts and juice while they’re waiting to see Santa, who is so popular there is a long line to see him.

This year, in commemoration of the event’s second decade, Lehman said, the auxiliary added live Christmas music by the DeAngelo family and special ornaments.

“We have second generations,” Lehman said, and sure enough there was hospital recruiter Lisa Peabody, who used to bring her children to see Santa and now was bringing her grandson, 10-month-old Chase Dagen.

“I don’t think he quite understands what’s going on yet,” Peabody said, looking at him as he sucked his thumb placidly. But, she said, the tradition was still fun, and a good way for co-workers to see each others’ families.

Repeat attendee McKenzie Myers, 7, of Carlisle definitely knew what the event was about.

“Talking to Santa!” she said when asked what she liked most. This year, she said, she was excited to tell him about the toy she wanted.

Through the years, Garman said, Santa has remained a happy presence at the event — and sometimes during other parts of the year as well. Before he retired from serving as director of material management, Garman said, Floyd Barnes got used to questions from children who recognized his fine white beard and asked him what Santa was doing at the hospital that time of year.

“He said, ‘When I’m not at the North Pole I help out at the hospital,’” Garman said.

Mrs. Claus, who was formerly known as Mechanicsburg resident Marilyn Aust, said she too has heard some hard questions over the years, particularly from little boys.

“They’ll just kind of look at me and say, ‘Where are the reindeer?’” she said. “I say, ‘Santa parks them way out in the woods so no harm comes to them.’”

Children also want to know what it is that Mrs. Claus does, she said, so this year in addition to her special Santa cookies on a stick, she also handed out copies of an old poem titled “Mrs. Santa” that explained how she pampers the reindeer and helps him keep track of his list.

“I’ll make sure he stops at your house, OK?” she assured one child, who, like the others, left smiling.