Joe Farris making trip to St. Jude Children’s Hospital with contributions from Deerfield-Windsor Lower Campus

ALBANY — The children of the lower campus of Deerfield-Windsor School made sure that Santa Joe had a good load of toys and monetary donations to take with him for the 460-mile trip from Albany to Memphis, Tenn., this Christmas.

Joe Farris, otherwise known as Santa Joe, was at the school’s annual holiday program to receive donations from the student body to take with him for what will be his 104th trip to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to give to the children who are spending Christmas there instead of in their own homes.

The gifts were received during a processional by Dave Davies, headmaster at Deerfield, and Lower Campus Director Cary Stoudenmire before being placed under the tree in the school’s auditorium for Farris to take on his journey to the southwestern corner of Tennessee.

“This is my favorite day of the year,” Davies said at the 35th annual holiday event on Friday to the children’s families. “I wish all of you could be up front to see the children as they give the gifts.

“We are incredibly blessed to be in a school and school community where (generosity) doesn’t happen (just) at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but every day of the year … I think you will leave with a warmer heart than when you came in.”

Stoudenmire introduced Farris, who gave a historical perspective by noting that St. Jude, from its start in 1962, has grown to be able to accept more than 67,000 patient visits each year from children whose families never receive a bill from the hospital that has been known for its pioneering treatments and leading edge research.

It has been a difficult year for Farris with the loss of his sister in February at the age of 100. Farris said his sister actively assisted him with St. Jude fundraising.

“With all the sickness in my family, I know the power of prayer,” Santa Joe, a former educator, said. “It brightens my day to see their (the children at St. Jude) faces, knowing (they) will have a good Christmas.”

Since he first started making the trip, the children have developed a bond with him, Farris says.

“The children hug me and say they love me,” he said. “It melts my heart, and that’s all I want for Christmas … they want to see me more than they want to see the presents.”

Aside from the toys, a few students presented monetary donations collected through fundraising efforts, which totaled more than $3,000.

“You have inspired a whole generation,” Stoudenmire said to Farris following those presentations.

It was a gesture that Farris was nearly brought to tears by. “God bless you all and good health to you all,” he said.

St. Jude was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas. A history provided on the hospital says that when when his wife, Rose Marie, was about to give birth to their first child, the Thomases were leading a precarious life with Danny Thomas trying to establish himself as an entertainer. He was torn between his dedication to his work and his responsibility to his wife and their new baby.

He knelt before the statue of St. Jude, and promised to erect a shrine to St. Jude if the saint would show him his way in life. He kept that promise through the establishment of a hospital for needy children — a place where they would be cared for regardless of race, religion or ability to pay.