Eli Williams, left, and brother Caleb pack letters to Santa Claus into a special mailbox Wednesday at the Birmingham Macy's store.

Writing a letter to Santa Claus is a tradition observed by countless children worldwide, but there’s no point to the process unless the letter gets mailed.

A local family took on the task to deliver more than 6,500 letters written by children from Limestone and Madison counties to a mailbox in Birmingham. They made the trip because the mailbox they placed the letters in was special.

For each letter put into the box inside the Birmingham Macy’s department store, the Macy’s corporation donates $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which fulfills the wishes of terminally ill people.

The Williams family and their cousins, the Yeagers, know what it means to have a wish fulfilled. Eli Williams, 12, was diagnosed at a younger age with brain cancer. He wished for a camper in 2013 and received one courtesy of Bankston Motor Homes.

After remission and relapse, Eli is taking on the role of activist by raising money to help other children with cancer in all aspects: from research for a cure to improving quality of life during treatment.

Kristi Williams, Eli’s mom, said her family had such a wonderful experience with the Make-A-Wish Foundation that her sister, Wendy Yeager, became a volunteer with the Alabama chapter of Make-A-Wish.

Each Christmas season, Make-A-Wish and Macy’s partner up to make more dreams come true. To help in this year’s donation drive, Williams and Yeager asked local schools and organizations to let them collect their Santa letters. They received response from Brookhill, Julian Newman, Tanner, and Athens Bible schools, as well as Madison Church of Christ and EarlyWorks Children’s History Museum in Huntsville and the Athens State University Center for Lifelong Learning — a total of 6,532 letters.

“Each one of those letters will directly affect a child,” Yeager told The News Courier. “Every time I see all those letters, I can’t help but think about each one of my Wish children.”

Yeager said a Make-A-Wish dream costs an average of $7,000, so all those letters adds up to almost granting one wish for a child. That much money could fund three or four trips to Disneyworld for “a pretty large family” or 30 parties the foundation hosts before a child’s wish is granted.

“It’s been very fun to see how the community has gotten involved,” she said.

Kristi said it’s a great resource for families.

“We love Make-A-Wish,” she told The News Courier. “So many times when I felt so bad because of (Eli’s) treatment, we could just lay in the bed and talk about his wish, not to mention actually receiving the wish. So even though it is not finding a cure for cancer, it has such a big impact on their overall health and well-being during treatment, and give them something to look forward to after treatment.”

Eli, his siblings and cousins traveled to Birmingham Wednesday and hauled bags of letters into the Macy’s of Brookwood Village.

“We are very excited about this donation and hope that it grows each year,” Kristi said.

For more information on the Macy’s Make-A-Wish campaign, visit http://social.macys.com/believe/.