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Santa adjusts to new normal during COVID
Santa is doing thousands of virtual visits during the holiday season.
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Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1996. Hartman shares moving stories about the extraordinary people he meets in his weekly feature segment "On the Road," which airs Fridays on the "CBS Evening News" and repeats on "CBS News Sunday Morning." "On the Road" is modeled after the long-running series of the same name originally reported by America's greatest TV storyteller, the late Charles Kuralt.
Hartman's stories are also used in thousands of classrooms around the world to teach kindness and character. In addition, with the help of his own children, Meryl and Emmett, Hartman and family host "Kindness 101." These segments air on "CBS Mornings."
In 2020, Hartman cofounded "Taps Across America" - which has become a Memorial Day tradition. Every year at 3 p. m., thousands of buglers and trumpet players stand on their porches and patios to play taps in commemoration of the holiday. Hartman was inspired by a story he did in 2013 on a man who played taps every night on his balcony.
Hartman has won dozens of prestigious broadcast journalism awards for his work. He has received an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, four national Emmy awards and 14 RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow awards, including a record 12 citations for best writing.
Previously Hartman was a columnist for "60 Minutes Wednesday" and correspondent for two primetime CBS News magazines, "Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel" (1997-98) and "Coast to Coast" (1996-97). Before that he was a feature reporter at KCBS-TV, the CBS owned station in Los Angeles (1994-98), WABC-TV in New York (1991-94) and KSTP-TV in Minneapolis (1987-91). He began his career in broadcast journalism at WTOL-TV in Toledo, Ohio as a news intern and general assignment reporter (1984-87).
Hartman was graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He is married with three children and lives in Catskill, New York.
Santa is doing thousands of virtual visits during the holiday season.
"I've never gotten a letter from a child like that before," one toy manufacturer said.
While Thanksgiving 2020 be different than celebrations from past years, many are taking the time to pause and reflect on what they are still grateful for.
A pig was able to be rescued from a burning barn thanks to a woman who was watching a livestream of the sleeping animal.
Little ghosts and ghouls turned out to be saints after leaving their Halloween candy for 3-year-old Zoe, who was diagnosed with leukemia in February.
"It was really amazing. Like I wasn't reading from a textbook anymore — I was with her," one visitor said.
A chipmunk in Georgia is living the life thanks to a food writer who created a special place exclusively for the furry creature.
The bond that two best friends share fits the season perfectly, right down to the bone.
Iowa isn't the only state with a field of dreams.
A mother in Attleboro received hundreds of cans of SpaghettiOs from kind neighbors.
"We're a fellowship – a fellowship of the fish chair," one member said.
Any electrician can flip a switch — but only John Kinney of Woburn, Massachusetts, can make a customer light up like this.
A smart security camera, a driveway and some chalk helped facilitate a bond between a 50-year-old man and his 4-year-old neighbor.
The best present anniversary present ever – the same anniversary present as always.
For 15 years, Captain John Makowsky had company — a faithful companion. In fact, he says maybe a little too faithful.