To members of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine.
From Sustainable Santa and Lady Santa
Outside of those of you in California, most of you likely are unaware of the activities of the Sustainable Santa Foundation and our efforts to place health promoting healthy Santa in Farmers Markets at holiday time and to conduct other kid-oriented classes to help American children be Healthy, Happy and Fit for Life.
To do that we have had to attempt to change both the image and the message of the “American” Santa promoted by the Coca Cola Company since 1931 as the obese fellow in the Red Suit with white cuffs, Coke’s colors, advocating sugary drinks, candy canes and sugar cookies. The California Farmers Markets have been an ideal place to promote “Eating Real Food” and living a sustainable lifestyle. And for the most part that effort has been working.
Since the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 we have added “Masked Santa” promotions encouraging wearing of face masks, social distancing, and the host of other “defensive” measure intended to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus referred to as Covid-19.
That effort has included an effort to get our San Diego County, CA Public Health Officer to adopt a ban on the Santa practice of wearing gloves while meeting children, thus creating a medium, medically called a “Fomite” by which Santa becomes an accumulator of viruses, germs and other pathogens which can then be passed on between children.
This issue became very important 2 years ago when a group of San Diego and Orange County CA Santas began promoting wearing RED GLOVES because they do not VISUALLY SHOW the “soiling” kids bring to Santas lap, thus VISUALLY they do not need to laundry them as often – completely disregarding the increased germ spreading that practice creates. Thanks to the cooperation of our County Health Officer we now have a ban-the-gloves pronouncement from the County in place which we are spreading (to the best of our ability) nationwide. Any assistance you can provide in that effort would be most appreciated.
Most importantly from the perspective of AIHM members, however, has been our effort to use the Farmers Markets and a new cartoon character we created to help people understand that in addition to the “defensive measures” they can take to curb the spread of the Coronavirus i.e. Mask Wearing, Social distancing, avoiding crowds, washing hands or using a hand sanitizer after touching any “FOMITE” (the medical term we are trying to put into common use = any surface touched by many people but not cleaned between each touch such as door knobs, elevator buttons, and yes Santa’s gloves) and contact tracing and quarantining. In addition to those important “defensive measures” there are “offensive measures” they can take to boost their immune system so that if they get the virus their chances of surviving it are far higher.
Articles about the Masked Santas
https://thecoastnews.com/commentary-health-official-farmers-and-santas-collaborate-against-covid-19/
Ihttps://www.thecoastnews.com/commentary-masked-santas-strike-up-meditative-music-at-moonlight/
