For the second year, Jon’s Locks teamed up with Santa Claus to provide Santa’s Magic Keys for families to hang on their homes’ door knobs on Christmas Eve. Santa found the keys especially helpful when delivering presents to homes without his traditional method of entry: a chimney.

The magical keys worked only for Santa; no one else could use them and children everywhere could sleep at night knowing Santa would deliver their gifts using the special key. 

Last summer, Jonathan Issa, owner of Jon’s Locks along with his son Zachary and Jon’s girlfriend Jessica, began planning last year’s Santa’s Magic Keys and decided to change it up a bit by fundraising for the homeless animals at the Warwick Animal Shelter.

In September, Jonathan, Zachary, Jessica and Jon’s family assembled 1,000 magical skeleton keys to custom display cards.

Starting in November, the keys could be purchased on Jon’s Locks’ website then shipped, or by stopping by the store until a few days before Christmas. Orders were received from Maine to Nevada to Hawaii and people came into the store from all over Rhode Island for their free key, raising $1,000.

Being a tremendous animal lover, Jonathan matched that with an additional $1,000 donation from Jon’s Locks.

Recently, Jonathan, Zachary and Jessica presented the $2,000 donation to representatives from Friends of the Warwick Animal Shelter along with adoptable Jumpin’ Jack Flash (who was easily distracted to look at the camera using graham crackers). Friends of the Warwick Animal Shelter will use the donation to fund important emergency and routine veterinary care, prescription medicines, special foods, enrichment and more for the shelter’s animals.

Jonathan said his mother, Claire, came up with a magic key when, he asked her how Santa would visit their home. They were living in a two-family house without a chimney. Quick to respond, Claire reached for a key and said she would leave him a magic key on the doorknob.

When Jon thought about doing something more than Toys for Tots at Christmas, he turned to his mother for suggestions. He immediately thought of the magic key, and the program to offer Santa Magic Keys blossomed from there.

The first year Jon’s Locks gave out keys, and when the story was picked up by Sam Reed at Channel 10 it took off. Jon started getting calls from across the country for keys. He went on Facebook and set up a website, bought skeleton keys in bulk and started taking orders at $10 a key including mailing and $4 for store pickups. He estimated he handed out 400 keys.

It was such a success that he plans to do it again this year. What’s more, the Friends of the Warwick Animal Shelter will be the intended beneficiary.

“We love animals,” Jon said, mentioning that both he and his son have dogs. And then he related how he helped rescue a dog that was loose on West Shore Road last summer. He stopped and spotted its owner running down the opposite side of the road.

They coordinated efforts to catch the scared pup.

“We got him,” Jon said.

The donation means a lot for the Friends of the Warwick Animal Shelter.

“We’re always grateful for community support,” said FOWAS president Judy Salvadore. She said that thanks to that support, “every animal [at the shelter] gets what they need.”