For the past 14 years, Marilyn Griska of Rindge has served as “Mrs. Santa” for the Rindge Woman’s Club’s annual Operation Santa, helping to organize Christmas gifts for children in need.
It is Griska’s unwavering dedication to the program — which this year provided gifts for a record number of children and was run entirely out of her home — that earned her the Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero recognition for the month of December.
“With her hard work and her positive ways, she has brought community together and helped to make many children’s Christmas’s brighter,” said fellow Woman’s Club member Lynda Hunt, who nominated Griska.
Griska joked that she originally got the job because she had a large basement to store gifts. In later years, the operation moved to Advent Lutheran Church, but this year returned to Griska’s home for what she said would be the final time, as the church had already been booked.
“This year, we did a record number of gifts,” Griska said. “Something like 32 families, and over 80 children. It’s the economy. Though we’re told it’s wonderful, it’s not wonderful for people close to the line, where one upset can put them over it.”
Griska said the Woman’s Club has always kept Operation Santa as anonymous as possible. Only the program director — a role Griska has held exclusively for the past decade — knows the identities of the families receiving assistance. Volunteers who help collect, sort, tag and distribute presents know children only by pseudonyms.
Giving trees are placed in local stores, including Walmart and the Verizon store in Rindge, as well as at the Ingalls Memorial Library. Griska said that Operation Santa has not only been a tradition in town for those in need, but for those who want to help.
“Everyone is always asking when the tree is coming,” Griska said.
In addition to community members who purchase gifts for the children, the Pumpkin Organization of Rindge, or P.O.O.R., donates funds each year to help provide boots and coats, and Franklin Pierce University donates books for every child in the program.
Operation Santa serves children from birth through age 18, as well as developmentally disabled adults for their entire lifetime.
“There’s a lot of elves doing different tasks,” Griska said of the operation. She said it’s a big undertaking that usually has her busy throughout the month of December. Griska said the program never turns a family away, even if a request comes in late, though accommodating those requests can sometimes mean last-minute gift card purchases.
“It’s exhausting, but rewarding,” Griska said.
This year will be Griska’s last as director of the program, though she said she plans to continue helping in any way she can. Due to failing vision, she said it has become difficult for her to run the program as she once did. In the coming year, Woman’s Club members Kim Pollack and Brenda Lashua will take on leadership of Operation Santa, continuing a tradition Griska helped shape for more than a decade.
Griska said she’s glad the tradition will continue, as it has for the past 40 or so years.
“I’m not going away,” Griska said. “I’ll be there as a consultant.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.