GARDINER – Mary Jewett doesn’t write letters to Santa – she writes letters from Santa. And lots of them.

The Gardiner grandmother is the founder of Professional Association of Santa’s Elves, a network of 357 people across the country who write personalized letters to children from Santa Claus.

Members write letters to children at the request of parents or relatives. Many, like Jewett, donate the proceeds to charities.

“In my mind, every letter I write is equal to a smile … it makes a child happy,” Jewett said. “This year I wrote exactly 400 letters, so to me, that’s 400 smiles.”

The association includes teachers, ministers, emergency medical technicians, nurses, professionals and stay-at-home moms. Together, the group wrote more than 10,500 letters last season.

She suggests that members donate part of their earnings to a charity such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

For her part, Jewett charges $5 per letter. She has chosen the Love Fund for her donations, after she takes a portion of the money to cover the cost of postage, printing and special Christmas paper and envelopes.

The idea came to her when she was chatting online with people about how to write an authentic “From Santa” letter. After that chat, she began to get hundreds of letters from people asking for more details.

“So I had this idea of an elves’ association. I thought we could perform a network,” she said.

Sometimes orders for Santa letters come from parents who just want their child to get a letter from Santa. Others ask Santa to remind their little one of good manners and decent behavior, such as the mom who asked Jewett to remind her son to be nice to the family dog.

The next year the mother wrote that her son’s behavior toward the pet improved by almost 100 percent.

“You have to put in gentle reminders: ‘Could you please do Santa a favor and be nicer to your little sister? She loves you a lot and wants to play with you.”‘ Jewett said.

The 55-year-old offers step-by-step instructions for new members, telling them to pretend they are Santa at the North Pole and to write from the heart, as though they were talking to their own child.

She gets in the Santa spirit by lighting scented candles and listening to Christmas music.