John Caterino, 68, has been an invited Santa Claus guest hundreds of times at locations ranging from Balboa Park to neighborhood gatherings. His natural long white beard and hair, warm smile and demeanor and his Santa outfit help children believe.<\/p>\n
Caterino recalls one little boy did not initially believe. While sitting on Caterino\u2019s knee, the child said, \u201cYou\u2019re not a real Santa Claus. All the fake Santas\u2019 beards come off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boy then pulled on my beard, but it did not come off,\u201d Caterino recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked \u2018now do you believe?\u2019 and the boy said, \u2018You are Santa\u2019 and gave me a big hug.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe he is Santa Claus,\u201d said Elias Velazquez, operations deputy\/volunteer coordinator for Brother Benno\u2019s Foundation in Oceanside, where Caterino has been volunteering for 14 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who has the pleasure of meeting John believes. It\u2019s not just the beard, but his spirit, generosity and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brother Benno\u2019s Executive Director Paul McNamara, a retired Marine colonel, added, \u201cI\u2019m a believer, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caterino says he feels warmth, compassion and empathy for people and happiness from helping them.<\/p>\n
But he was not always like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore volunteering at Brother Benno\u2019s I was thick-skinned and lacked compassion,\u201d he said. \u201cI had never volunteered for anything, had never been Santa Claus, had stubble for a beard and short black hair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caterino\u2019s Santa Claus began after a car accident resulting in serious injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a near-death experience,\u201d he said. \u201cAll I remember is the brightest light I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accident changed his life. He retired from his job at a water district. His wife, Maryanne, suggested he join with her volunteering at Brother Benno\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit began as a soup kitchen 40 years ago and continues today\u00a0helping homeless and low-income families in a variety of ways, including free daily meals in their dining room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was still my old self and responded that I didn\u2019t want to be there with\u00a0those\u00a0people,\u201d Caterino said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she saw something in me that I didn\u2019t see and convinced me to try it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the first day at Brother Benno\u2019s in 2011 Caterino was given the keys to their food truck and asked to retrieve food donated by supermarkets from throughout the county for distribution to the needy.<\/p>\n
Since that first day, he has driven the food truck nearly every weekday, five to six hours a day, year-round for 14 years \u2014 all as a volunteer!<\/p>\n
Every day, Caterino would see families in line waiting for food and living in their cars. As he saw young children waiting in line, he would feel his eyes tear up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to myself early on that, as long as I live, I will drive the food truck and bring food so that no one goes to bed hungry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy views changed about the people being helped at Brother Benno\u2019s. I heard lots of stories from people coming from all walks of life. I felt the warmth, compassion and empathy inside that Maryanne saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Caterino continued to drive the Brother Benno\u2019s food truck over the years, his love for children and the people being helped at Brother Benno\u2019s grew.<\/p>\n
He allowed his beard and hair to grow and they turned white. He acquired Santa clothes and happily agreed to attend gatherings as Santa. He smiled and laughed more than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat helps make Santa Claus is compassion and the feeling of happiness from giving,\u201d Caterino said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is too short to be angry or upset,\u201d he added\u2026 and then he paused.<\/p>\n
With a twinkle in his eyes and a broad smile<\/p>\n
He sprang to his food truck and drove out of sight.<\/p>\n
In the distance, could be heard:<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy Christmas to all and to all a good night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since December 2024 initial publication, Caterino continues delivering food at Brother Benno\u2019s and appearing as Santa. Additionally, he is building a second \u201cRainbow Bridge\u201d in Vista\u2019s South Dog Park to display plaques commemorating deceased pets. \u201cMrs. Claus keeps finding projects to get me out of the house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
About this series<\/p>\n
Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.<\/p>\n
We welcome reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at\u00a0jgsandiego@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Caterino, 68, has been an invited Santa Claus guest hundreds of times at locations ranging from Balboa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,100,592,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-102179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-people","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}