Bringing Cheer to Children ... Wherever They Are

Children came by the dozen, eyes shining and hopes brimming, to Christmas parties half a world away. They were organized to bring a little cheer to kids who desperately needed it. The place was Vietnam, and the war was raging. The guy in charge was Davenport's own Sergeant Mike Peppers.
 
 

Mike displays over 200 Santa statues on the shelves of his office. This Army Santa is a reminder of his Vietnam service, given to him - as most of his treasured collection - by a friend.

When he thinks back on it now, Mike remembers the children's delight in receiving the gifts his own soldiers couldn't use or keep: the Monopoly games, the slippers, the stuffed animals. "Folks from back home would send wonderful but impractical gifts to us," he says, "We couldn't use them. But the kids where we were stationed - many of them were orphaned - needed to know somebody cared. We could give them something to make them feel good, at least for a few hours. Of course playing Santa made us feel good too."
 
Playing Santa still comes naturally to Mike. He's a bear of a man with a big heart and - 40 years later - white hair. He lives at the North Pole (his office at Sergeant Peppers' Auto Shop is crammed with Santa memorabilia, robes, boots and belts), drives a Santamobile, and rubs elbows with all sorts of elves. Although his duties as Santa have changed over the years, the mutual delight he and children feel in one another's presence remains a great source of joy.
 
 

Mike tries on a giant-sized Santa belt in his Santa dressing room at the shop.

"We used to spend weeks buying and wrapping presents for needy children," Mike says of the years he spent with the Jaycees, before agencies began distributing toys anonymously. "Then we would load them up in my rusty old truck - which I would hide out back of the houses - and deliver them to kids who were so poor they didn't have a Christmas tree. When they saw Santa at the door with presents that had their names on them, why, they couldn't quit smiling. It was the best feeling in the whole world."
 
One thing bugged him, though. He didn't have a sleigh and reindeer. "I got to thinking about it," Mike says. "I wanted a vehicle that I could park out front, that would add to the kids' fun. I thought, Santa needs a sleigh-on-wheels for when we don't have snow on the ground!"
 
So Mike built the famous Santamobile (above). Now in its 20th year, the gleaming red mobile was built from 11 cars and hundreds more car parts. It sports a picture of Rudolf on its hood, holly on its hubcaps, and bells on its beautifully-embroidered white upholstery. It plays Christmas music that bystanders can hear a block away. And it elicits smiles and waves from everyone it passes, during a parade or on an ordinary workday afternoon.
 
Although this time of year, there is no such thing as an ordinary afternoon for Santa. After the Festival of Trees appearances, Mike spends December visiting with children of all ages at such places as the Davenport Public Library, Happy Joe's Special Needs parties, Marquette Academy and the Senior Lights Tours. His heart fills to the brim as he listens to the children's wishes. This is what he was born to do.
 

Mike says this sculpture is a highlight of his 40 years of playing Santa.

When Isabel Bloom created the Santamobile in miniature, commemorating his life's work, Mike was left (nearly) speechless.
 
"I suggested it to them, but never expected them to say yes," he says. "I am so awed and honored. I just want every child's Christmas to be full and magical, and I plan to spend the rest of my life working for that. You know, I still think about those kids in Vietnam. I guess I try to honor them by doing what I can for children wherever they are, no matter their color or creed. I just love
them."

Read the Quad City Times story about Mike and Isabel Bloom!