What began more than 30 years ago as Bill Dieterle’s effort to bring the joy of Christmas to hospitalized children has turned into a free, year-round quest.
Santa, as he prefers to be called, is the owner of Santa’s Hideaway Hollow, a more than 90-acre spread about 3 miles east of Middlefield.
It’s there, Dieterle makes children happy, from children who are terminally ill to those with special needs.
“It started out with me fulfilling the wishes of hospitals to have Santa visit sick and dying children Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays,” he says. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined doing this as long as I have and building all this.”
Over the years, the retired Stouffer’s executive has turned himself into Santa by growing a medium-length white beard and developing a big stomach that really does shake like a bowl full of jelly when he laughs.
THE BEGINNING
The idea for Santa’s Hideaway Hollow started more than 30 years ago while he was working as a Santa’s helper. One little boy jumped to the beginning of the line of children. The people in charge were about to ask him to go to the back of the line when Dieterle noticed a scar on the child and said it was okay for him to stay.
Dieterle asked him what he wanted for Christmas; the boy answered, “Nothing.”
“You must want something,” he recalls saying to the boy.
He was surprised by the child’s reply. “Santa, you know I’m dying. Please just make my mother happy.”
“That really got to me,” Dieterle says. “It was after that when I came up with the idea for Santa’s Hideaway Hollow because these kids have to have a place to come to rather than wait for a Christmas they might not have.”
BUILDING THE NORTH POLE
Santa’s Hideaway Hollow is a North Pole village with live reindeer. Area school kids volunteer as elves and special soldiers.
The buildings have been built with donations from companies like Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and PepsiCo, as well as individuals like former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, who has a building named after him.
Dieterle says, ”It’s a magical place where the spirit of Christmas lasts forever.”
The village has its own fire station and a tailor shop, along with a tackle shop where kids can get equipment for summer fishing in the village’s lake. The Santa’s Workshop usually is filled with toys. Not too far away is an elf control tower along with the reindeer, which prance around in an adjacent field for children to see.
CELEBRATE ONE MORE TIME
Terminally ill children are invited to bring anyone they might have at their home on Christmas to the village, which is not open to the public.
Santa’s Hideaway Hollow gives children the opportunity to celebrate Christmas one last time with their families.
While the village is closed for the season in late September, Dieterle continues to see terminally ill children at hospitals.
“When the weather begins to change, it’s not good to have them come here because of rain and snow and the risk of them getting sicker than they are,” he says. “So, I go to them wherever they are.”
Over the years, he has visited or seen more than 100,000 sick or dying children at his village or at children’s medical facilities in Cleveland, Chicago and other communities.
For information on how to have Santa visit call 440-632-5000 or visit santashideawayhollow.com.
