Rumford man gets help from NewPage paper mill and majorettes to write what could be the world’s largest letter to Santa.

RUMFORD – Writing a letter to Santa doesn’t take long, unless it’s a really big letter. Say, 24 by 100 feet.

It’s billed as the world’s largest letter to Santa. And it will originate right here in Rumford.

“It will be the size of a tennis court and will fill half of a basketball court,” Scot Grassette said Saturday at a dress rehearsal for the letter-signing. The practice event featured majorettes with bingo markers writing names and Christmas wishes on sheets of giant parchment.

Organizers hope the real letter, to be signed next Saturday, will be filled with the names and wishes of hundreds of people of all ages in the River Valley area. It will be mailed in an envelope 4 feet wide and 7 feet long.

Its destination? Why, Santa’s North Pole home in Alaska, of course.

According to postmaster Tony Glazier, an estimated 194 first-class stamps will get the 38-pound wish list to the other side of the country well before Christmas.

“This is, hopefully, going to be the world’s largest single-sheet letter ever sent and, hopefully, it will get into the record books,” Grassette said.

The giant parchment was produced and donated by his employer, the local NewPage Corp. paper mill.

On Saturday, Grassette helped the majorettes move a huge, straight-edge tool into place to ensure uniform lettering to explain the paper’s origin.

Grassette, an electrician and magician, said he got the idea for the giant letter at a teacher’s workshop and his daily walks past the No. 15 paper machine and its enormous rolls of paper.

“I think it’s a really original idea and I hope it gets to the North Pole, because I want my wish to come true,” majorette mom Tammy Parent of Rumford said. “I’m really proud of all the work the girls did to get this accomplished.”

News of the feat – published in newspapers across the Northeast – brought phone inquiries from people in Boston and New Hampshire, Denise Oakes said.

“They’ve been calling us up and saying, ‘What’s this about the World’s Largest Letter to Santa?’ And some are even trying to come up and participate,” she said.

Speaking for the 13 majorettes, Allison Hutchins and Krystal Parent summed up their thoughts on the project.

“I think it’s amazing and it’s going to be so cool. The kids are going to love it,” Hutchins said.

“I think it’s a really awesome idea and, it’s a good way to get the community involved,” Parent said. “But, I really could not imagine having to write an essay on this piece of paper.”