For more than 20 years, the Rochelle community has had a Santa Claus it could believe in.

That Santa was at every lighted parade and old fashioned Christmas Walk. He visited school classes, nursing homes, the Community Action Network Shopping Trip, the Vince Carney Community Theater, the Flagg-Rochelle Public Library, and more.

Rochelle children over the past 20 years never had to wonder why Santa Claus looked a little different than he did the last time they saw him.

That Santa Claus was Steve Strang. This Christmas season will be Rochelle’s first without him. Strang died Oct. 2 after a 6 1/2-year battle with ALS. The disease never stopped him from fulfilling his Santa responsibilities or from making the most of his time with his family, even in recent years after it took the use of his arms.

Strang came from a family that loved Christmas, and he passed it on to his own. He had a 58-year total history as Santa. His family would gather and his father and uncles would take turns in the suit. When Strang got into high school, his turn as Jolly Old St. Nick came. He carried the mantle through the remainder of his life.

“It was just known that we were booked up during Christmas time,” said Strang’s wife, Sally Sawicki, who sewed his Santa suits and played Mrs. Claus. “We couldn’t go up north on vacation until after Christmas. Everything stopped so he could be Santa. He had a special thing with kids. Everything revolved around Christmas with him.”

Strang’s daughter, Wendy Schmitt, helped her father build his sleigh in the garage for the Rochelle lighted parade. She also played an elf alongside her father, making sure Santa got to all of his appearances. Grandchildren would often play the part of snowmen and accompany him as well.

When Strang’s grandchildren were little, he would play Santa at family gatherings. And when they’d get older, they’d become Santa’s helpers.

“He just loved Christmas,” Schmitt said. “He liked doing things for other people. He liked to make the kids happy. He would go out of his way. He got a lot of letters from kids and kept them. Sometimes he was able to get those kids stuff they needed. He really enjoyed it.”

Christmas will be different this year for Strang’s loved ones. But the mantle of Santa Claus has been taken up, and will remain in the family. Strang’s grandson, Tyler Isham-Schmitt, will be making appearances in Rochelle this holiday season as Santa Claus.

Isham-Schmitt will use the same sleigh as his grandfather. Sawicki and Schmitt believe the love for Christmas is genetic, and that Strang would be proud of his grandson.

“I just want to do it for him,” Isham-Schmitt said. “He got me into Christmas. I’ve always loved being a part of it with him, ever since he stuffed me into a snowman suit that was three times my size when I was little. We had to stuff newspapers in it just to keep it up.”

Even as his ALS worsened, Strang never complained about his condition or pain or going out in the cold for events, such as parades. Schmitt’s stepdaughter rode with him in the sleigh in the parade and waved to people, acting as Santa’s hands.

Strang remained positive and upbeat in his later years despite his condition. He still wanted to go out and do things with his family, and that’s just what they did. A veteran, he took an Honor Flight trip to Washington D.C., with Schmitt accompanying him. The family took trips to Disney and to North Carolina. He and Sally took their usual trips up north to the lake.

Two years is the average remaining life expectancy for someone after being diagnosed with ALS. Sawicki called the past 6 1/2 years the family had with Steve “priceless”. She thanked the Department of Veterans Affairs for its help in getting Strang an accessible van, wheelchair, hospital bed and caregivers.

“He made the most of his final years,” Schmitt said. “I remember when Sally called me and told me he was diagnosed with it. I figured we would only have him a couple more years. And he made it two years. And then came three and four. He just kept going. It was never about him. Even when he got sick with ALS, it still wasn’t about him. He wanted to make sure that everyone else was taken care of. He put other people first.”

Strang’s loved ones remember him as a family man who was always there and could be called at any time, day or night, if something was needed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he still fulfilled his Santa responsibilities, bringing his sleigh and passing by for pictures that wouldn’t break restrictions. That was who he was, Schmitt said.

“That’s how the whole town knew him,” Schmitt said. “When he was walking into physical therapy, it wasn’t ‘There’s Steve.’ It was, ‘Santa’s here.’ It’s nice that a lot of people got to know him and see what we saw in him. He was very special. He will be missed by many.”

Strang made special moments with his family, and thousands of Rochelle children. Sawicki recalled one specific case of that.

“I remember one little girl that he was Santa for at a daycare,” Sawicki said. “Steve always wore the same blue mittens with his suit. And then she saw him again the next year at kindergarten. I heard the girl tell her dad, ‘That’s the real Santa Claus. The ones that you take me to see at the mall are all phonies.’”