Veteran's family gets surprise

Dec. 24--SHAMOKIN -- Anthony Fera and Ray DeFacis embraced Friday afternoon, tears in both their eyes, at the Chestnut Street home in Shamokin. Moments before, DeFacis and other volunteers dropped off dozens of presents to the Fera family of eight.

Fera, 41, a disabled Gulf War veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, said the gesture from DeFacis and the Santa's Miracle Gift of Giving to him, his wife and six children inspired him and melted his frozen heart.

"I'll be honest, I've been bitter and becoming hard," Fera said. "This renewed and rebirthed my giving spirit."

DeFacis, who plays Santa Claus in Sunbury, is the co-founder of Santa's Miracle Gift of Giving, a program that provides gifts and food for families across the Valley. The Fera family was one of four families who received a delivery from Santa and his helpers on Friday.

Fera and his wife, Regina Fera, 36, have one income and are raising six children: Joslynn, 14; Gabriel, 10; Joshua, 8; Leah-Marie, 6; Hannah, 4; and Autumn-Rose, 2. The family has two dogs: Snowball, a 4-year-old English golden retriever, and Athena, a 10-month-old English mastiff.

Regina Fera is a stay-at-home mother while her husband is a painter for a sub-contracting business, but work is slow in the winter months. Anthony Fera also experiences Post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety issues from combat, hearing loss from working with explosives during the war and is constant pain due to injuries from his current career. He does receive some benefits from the VA, but it's not enough.

"Without you guys, my kids wouldn't have had a Christmas," Anthony Fera said. "It would be horrible."

The packages consisted of fishing rods, Legos, Star Wars and Scooby Doo toys, make up and hair accessories, Barbie dolls, My Little Pony toys, V-Tech toys and stocking stuffers, DeFacis said.

Regina Fera said she was overwhelmed.

"It's nice to see there's good people out there," she said.

DeFacis was emotional as he delivered the gifts and spoke with the family.

"There's a lot of love in every package there," DeFacis said.

The 52-year-old city man has been playing Santa for 30 years -- two of those years in the city. A few years ago, he and wife Tina DeFacis fell on hard times and received help, and they founded the gift-giving program to give back to other needy families.

"It's a hard choice to make when you have to decide to either pay bills or buy food or buy Christmas presents," DeFacis said.

This is the second year that the DeFacis couple has partnered with Victoria and Kristine Rosancrans and Parent to Parent Inc. of Sunbury to bring struggling families Christmas gifts. The families this year included a Sunbury mother with neck surgery who hasn't been able to return to work, a Mifflinburg mother of three who is attending Harrisburg Area Community Center in hopes of obtaining a degree to provide a better life for her family and another family who preferred not to share their story.

"All of this was possible by the generosity of others," Rosancrans said. "We had monetary donations and donations nations of toys, clothing, household items and Christmas Dinner was donated. It truly is a grass roots effort. We had three women that came to my home on Tuesday and wrapped presents for four hours. This charity has inspired others to give back and we have people volunteering to help for next year already. I'm looking forward to this Charity growing and being able to help more families in the valley."

Anthony Fera told DeFacis he wants to volunteer next year.

Email Justin Strawser at jstrawser@dailyitem.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinLStrawser.

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