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Avoid the risk, threaten the experience
But now, because one possibly risky incident (read the article), they've shut it down for everyone - even in other cities, where this great program has spread.
Operation Santa Claus was a genuine good experience: good for the post office workers who collected the letters; good for the donors who gave time and money to help those less fortunate; and good for the recipients, many of whom would get nothing for Christmas (especially in 2008) were it not for this program.
And in 100 years and who-knows-how-many cities, and countless thousands of families helped, there's one reported risk to the system. And so the post office shuts it down? Maybe they had no choice; maybe their lawyers advised them on what liability lawsuits cost these days. But the outcome is a net loss for everyone involved, and an example of poorly set priorities as a society.
With this closure, the system says: protecting against a single one-in-a-bazillion incident is more important than offering an outstanding service, for 100 years, to thousands or millions of people.
Yes, one can certainly avoid risk by increasing security. But it comes at a cost to the experience.
Talk about an opportunity for Fedex, UPS, etc. Holy cow.
I haven't heard about this program before, it's a very nice thing. I hope Operation Santa comes back in 2009 and I wish it existed in other countries.
Alex
Huh. I tried commenting on this before Christmas, but the comment doesn't seem to have taken. In any case, the NY Times reported that the Santa program came back, with slight alterations.
The email I received directly before your newsletter was a request for help from a friend being asked to provide liability waivers for participants in a program with almost zero risk. The order of concern seems to be 1. financial/legal liability 2. potential health or safety issues 3. balance of risk and reward. Very frustrating.