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	'Santa Todd' Goes Virtual to Provide Holiday Joy to Children
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        <h1 class="title">'Santa Todd' Goes Virtual to Provide Holiday Joy to Children</h1>
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                 alt="Todd Bishop, a U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency civilian employee, is pictured as “Santa Todd,” with Evan Miller, a youngster from Homer, Ala. The virtual photo with Santa is one way Bishop has adapted to distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic."
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                <div class="image-title">'Santa Todd' goes virtual to provide holiday joy to children</div>
                <div class="image-caption">Todd Bishop, a U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency civilian employee, is pictured as “Santa Todd,” with Evan Miller, a youngster from Homer, Ala. The virtual photo with Santa is one way Bishop has adapted to distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.</div>
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    <div><b>By (Courtesy Photo, U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command)</b> <span class="date">/ Published Dec. 23, 2020</span></div>
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    <p>WASHINGTON -- Todd Bishop started playing Santa Claus a couple years ago as a way to give back during the holidays, but things have changed quite a bit over the past year.<br />
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With mandatory physical distancing and mask usage in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bishop had to get a little more creative in sharing the holiday magic with youngsters.<br />
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"Santa Todd," as he's known, has gone virtual.<br />
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"This has actually been a silver lining sort of story," said Bishop, director of the business support office at the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency. " ... This has enabled me to find different ways that Santa Todd can raise charitable contributions."<br />
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Bishop has leveraged social media and video calls to facilitate more than two dozen virtual visits with children, as well as virtual photos with Santa in coordination with a non-profit organization called Gold in Fight, a foundation dedicated to serving families in need due to hardships caused by pediatric cancer.<br />
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He works closely with parents to plan the visits, learning about the children in advance to help personalize the experience. Even something small like knowing the kid's name before making a FaceTime call can really make a difference.<br />
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"Having that information ahead of time, it helps create the magic," Bishop said. "Sometimes I'll have the parents hide a gift or a treat for the kid somewhere in the house then I, as Santa, can direct them to it. There's amazement there, like 'how in the heck did he do that?'"<br />
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"I usually conspire with the Elf on the Shelf whose name I also know going into the call," he laughed.<br />
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Along with personalized virtual visits and photos, Santa Todd has participated in a Facebook Live event for a local charter school and recorded a video reading a children's book for a military unit in Germany. He also was interviewed for a podcast that aired on Dec. 21, 2020.<br />
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The feedback from parents and, obviously, children has been overwhelmingly positive.<br />
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One of those parents, Army Maj. Zachary Patterson, who works with Bishop as deputy director of USAMMA's BSO, said it was a great way to leverage technology and stay safe while having some fun with his 3-year-old daughter.<br />
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"It was a good opportunity for us to still have the magical Santa experience without potentially exposing ourselves to an environment that may or may not be safe," Patterson said, like visiting a mall Santa, for example.<br />
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"It worked out even better actually," he added. "We were able to send our daughter's letter to Santa, and he was able to open it during the call. It's a way he can further personalize the experience."<br />
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Bishop hopes his efforts not only raise donations, but also spread some much-needed holiday joy.<br />
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"I think people need it, especially [now]," he said.<br />
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