Santa's secret gift: $100 bills

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Susan Dahl had spent four months homeless in Colorado and just been on a harrowing 10-hour bus trip through sleet and snow. Hungry and broke, all she wanted to do was get back to family in Minnesota.

That's when a tall man in a red coat and red hat sat next to her at the downtown bus station that cold December afternoon, talked with her quietly and then slipped her $100.

The man was doing the work of Larry Stewart, Kansas City's original Secret Santa, who anonymously wandered city streets doling out $100 bills to anyone who looked like they needed it. Stewart died of cancer at age 58 earlier this year, but his legacy lives on.

"He said 'Here's a $100 bill . . . and this is in memory of Larry Stewart,' " said Dahl, 56.

During about a quarter century, Stewart quietly gave out more than $1.3 million to people in laundromats, diners, bus stations, shelters and thrift stores, saying it was his way of giving back at Christmas for all the wealth and generosity he had received in his lifetime.

For years, Stewart did not want his name known or want thanks or applause, but last December he acknowledged who he was and used his last few months while battling cancer to press his message of kindness toward others. He even trained some friends in the ways of Secret Santa.

This Christmas, a friend who told Stewart in the hospital that he would carry on for him is out on the streets, handing out $100 bills, each one stamped with "Larry Stewart, Secret Santa."

Between Kansas City and several other cities this Christmas, the new Secret Santa will give away $75,000 of his own money, mostly in $100 bills.

"I didn't want to be a Secret Santa," said the man, a business consultant who lives in the Kansas City area. "I wanted to give Larry money. But last year, he said I had to hand it out myself. So I did, and I got hooked."

People respond differently to the gesture. Some cry. Some scream. A rare few even say "No thanks."

The new Secret Santa also has a Web site - http://www.secret santaworld.net - and is trying to recruit other Secret Santas across the country.

"Anyone can be a Secret Santa," he says. "You don't have to give away $100. You can give away kindness. Help someone." *