Santa on the air in Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach, Va. - When someone gets hurt or even dies at Christmas time, it can be especially traumatic for children.
So, Chief Bruce Nedelka of Virginia Beach EMS contacted WAVY.com to say he has a unique plan to help kids make it through those scary situations.

Nedelka says this plan formed several years ago on Christmas Eve.  That's when a Virginia Beach EMS volunteer got to a tragic scene and noticed children witnessed the devastation.

Not wanting those kids to correlate the holidays with tragedy, that volunteer requested a big favor of an extremely busy man...Santa Claus.

"Christmas is supposed to be a happy time and sometimes if you have a bad incident, kids can be affected," says Nedelka.

So, Nedelka says an EMS volunteer called Santa to see if he could help.

"He said, 'I want to help, but I'm tied up on a sleigh, I'm tied up here,'" explains Nedelka. "We said, 'You know what, Santa? We can give you a radio! We can give you a radio! We can have a whole certain link of communications and he said, 'HO, HO, HO, fantastic, give me the radio and that's what we'll do.'"

...and with that, the "Santa On The Air" program began.  It's focuses on children who witness tragic scenes from now until Christmas.

"At the scene, one of our EMS providers or police officers or firefighters could actually contact Santa through our communications," says Nedelka.

An EMS volunteer and Santa demonstrated how it works.

"North Pole 1, this is Virginia Beach EMS 7," says the volunteer over the radio.

"North Pole 1, this is Santa."

"Hey Santa, this is Virginia Beach EMS 7. We were wondering if you could talk to Sally because we're taking her mother to the hospital."

"Ho, Ho, Ho! Put Sally on the radio," says Santa.

Then, Santa talks to Sally, lets her talk to him about how she's feeling, and gives her encouragement.

"Through talking to me, maybe I can divert some of that attention and give them a good memory for Christmas," Santa tells WAVY.com.

It's a simple gift that can never be wrapped, yet used for years to come.  Kind words and happy thoughts courtesy of Jolly Old Saint Nick and Virginia Beach EMS.

"Sally, you're on Santa's good list this year! Merry Christmas to you and your family. Ho, Ho, Ho!"

Santa is on-call from December 23 until about "noon or so" Christmas day.  Emergency workers say after all, he does deserve to sleep at some point.