June Morgan's Beacon Santa Address in its entirety

"Dr. Kennedy, Mr. Cranson, Mr. Magno, WAVM staffers and guests.

Last December, while many of us hurried about choosing the perfect gift for our parents, friends, siblings and significant others, a single mother of four finally accepted the inevitable- it was going to be a bleak Christmas.

She was fighting a battle against breast cancer that took her out of the labor force and onto the welfare rolls, She had already cashed in her retirement fund some months previously; her oldest son who was only 21 himself had been turning over his paychecks for the previous year to help keep the family afloat.

But despite their best efforts, there just wasn't enough money to provide a Christmas dinner and a few gifts for the children.

Beacon Santa was there to help this family.

Shortly before the holidays she told one of our reporters, "It was so wonderful. I can have a real Christmas dinner for my children and not have to worry about where the money is coming from."

She also planned to buy her children some new clothes and a couple of Barbie dolls for her youngest daughter who was only 11-year-old.

"She loves to play with dolls," she said, "and now I can get her one of two of her own."

Here in Maynard, a father of two teenage daughters found his family's life turned upside down when he was diagnosed with cancer. Forced to undergo chemotherapy, the treatments left him too weak, dizzy and disoriented to drive to work, and too unsteady to walk his route as a mailman. Soon after his diagnosis, he was forced to give up his job.

His illness also affected his wife's ability to work. The responsibility for caring for her husband who was in and out of the hospital on a regular bases consumed all her waking hours and within a few weeks, she too had to leave her job.

Beacon Santa was there to help this family.

"Now my mom can go Christmas shopping," said the 16-year-old daughter.

The money would be used for food for a Christmas party. "Usually the party is at my grandmother's house," the daughter explained, "But we couldn't make it there because of my dad, so this year the relatives are coming here."

"I think it's a wonderful thing, the Beacon Santa Fund does. Since I've moved to Maynard I've always given something to the fund, and now it's helping me," said the father.

These are the people that Beacon Santa and your telethon are all about. The Beacon Santa fund began back in the early '60s with just a few Maynard and Acton families who received gift boxes of food and wrapped gifts personally delivered by newspaper employees. Over the past 30 years, more and more families turned to Beacon Santa for help during the holidays. Last December, some 400 families received benefits from the fund. Although we no longer personally deliver food and gifts, the basic idea of brightening the holidays for families in crisis hasn't changed. It remains the cornerstone of the Beacon Santa fund today just as it was then.

Just as our way of providing foods and gifts has changed through the years, so has our source of donations. Over the years, your telethon has emerged as the single biggest contributor to the Beacon Santa fund. This year you raised $30,000 for Beacon Santa, more than half of the total $55,000 that was distributed.

Because of the major impact the telethon has on our ability to fund the charity, you have effectively joined a partnership with the Beacon newspapers and the Beacon Santa fund, a partnership I might add that is unique for both the newspapers and for the WAVM staffers.

Community Newspaper Company, parent company of the Maynard Beacon and a number of other area weekly newspapers is now composed of more than 100 newspapers that cover towns ranging from Cape Cod through the North Shore. The newspaper chain also include recent acquisitions in New Hampshire and the Middlesex News. That's a lot of newspapers covering many cities and town, but you know, in all those organizations there is nothing even close to the relationship shared by our newspapers and your television station.

And nowhere in all these towns is there a group of high school kids, 117 to be exact, who were willing to give up 40 long hours two weeks before Christmas to raise money for people you probably don't know and never will meet.

We know how hard you worked because our photographers were there during those hours, bringing back pictures of you all in front of the cameras, working behind the scenes, enjoying a few free moments and, yes, even grabbing a few hours of sleep.

Our readers got to see just how hard you all worked to ensure the success of this endeavor. I'm sure there are lots of things you could have been doing so close to the holidays, but you gave your time so that others would be able to enjoy the holidays.

It is a pleasure for me to be here tonight to celebrate your accomplishment and thank you on behalf of the newspaper and the families you helped. We hope you enjoy these tokens of our appreciation.

Your parents, and your teachers should be very proud of you, and you should be proud of yourselves. You deserve it."