I know because an Army sergeant in Iraq told me that she -- yes, she, Virginia -- delivered a special gift from the North Pole to Baghdad last Christmas Eve. It was the gift of life, Virginia, one that saved a soldier. I'll let this sergeant tell you the story, Virginia, because she wants you and every child in the world to know that the spirit of Santa is alive and well.

"Some soldiers don't like to talk about family, and this was the case with this young soldier," the sergeant wrote to me from Iraq. "His performance was going down, and his attitude became more and more withdrawn. I began going over the mail list and noticed that in two months he got only one letter." This sergeant learned that the soldier had joined the Army hoping to find a new family in the service, because the one he had at home wasn't working. They were not close, and he felt like an outcast, Virginia. Unfortunately, some families are like that.

"Seeing everybody in his unit get mail from loved ones while he got nothing day after day only made things worse," the sergeant wrote to me. "I passed along a few of the 'any service member' letters that people back home randomly send, but it didn't help. He said it was like getting 'occupant' mail."

That's when this sergeant wrote to Carolyn Blashek in Encino, Calif., for help. Blashek started a non-profit organization called Operation Gratitude. In the last four years, she and her volunteer elves have sent more than 300,000 care packages to troops who don't get much mail from home. She learns their names, Virginia, from company commanders and first sergeants. Each and every holiday package she and her elves send has the service member's name on it, plus a couple of letters inside from kids like you, Virginia. They tell the troops that they're thinking about them every day and that they care about them.

"It was a few days after Christmas when I began to see the change," the sergeant wrote to me. "Something had happened. He was eating with the other men instead of taking his food and eating alone. His whole attitude and work improved. He finally opened up and told a stress counselor that he had planned to take his life on Christmas Day so someone would remember him."

The young soldier found a package addressed to him, with presents and letters inside.

But something wonderful had happened on Christmas Eve, Virginia. When the sad young soldier went back to his bunk that night, he found a package that wasn't addressed to "any service member." It was addressed to him. He ripped it open and found presents for him inside and three letters written for him, all of them thanking him personally for his service and wishing him a safe return home. That wonderful package saved this young man's life.

No Santa Claus, Virginia? Santa "exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist" -- and as long as there are Santas here on Earth -- in people like Blashek, who never even meets those whose lives she touches forever.