Just before the Christmas holidays, an email went out to the Newmentia faculty and staff concerning donations for pupils in need. One of our support staff was in charge, and rather than noting a list of items needed this year, put out a call for monetary donations.
Mrs. Hillbilly Mom has no qualms about donating to our local families. None whatsoever. She sealed up a crisp $100 bill in an envelope and dropped it off at the office, certain it would be applied to the most deserving causes. And that was that. No other thoughts about it until last week.
The Giver came to Mrs. HM's classroom after school. Only moments after Mrs. HM had run off Farmer H, who showed up to keep score for The Pony's competition with the SmartyPants team. "I have too much work to get done before I go down there! Let me get caught up!" Farmer H was quite understanding, and rather than stand around soaking up work time, he high-tailed it to the teacher workroom, where pizza had been announced for the team and for workers.
The Giver rushed in. "I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. This won't take long. I saw Farmer H eating pizza, and I said, 'Is Mrs. HM still here? I wanted to talk to her, and I haven't had time.' And Farmer H said, 'She's here. But she'll run you out!' So this will only take a minute."
"Oh, I don't mind. That was just to get rid of him. I can talk to him at home. What's going on?"
"Well, remember right before Christmas, when we took donations? I know you donated, and I just wanted to let you know that the family asked me to thank you. They don't know who you are, but they wanted me to tell the people who donated how much it meant to them. I usually don't do this, but I gave your whole donation to one family. I asked Mr. Principal if I could do that, and then if I should ask you if it was okay to use your donation that way. He said, 'That's fine. You don't need to ask her, because I know Mrs. Hillbilly Mom would be fine with that.' The kids live with their grandparents, and the grandpa had some medical issues right before Christmas. One of the kids is in your class, and the sibling attends Basementia. I was over there walking through the lunchroom, and Sibling ran up and threw his arms around me and said, 'Please thank the people who donated. It really made my Christmas.' So I am passing that on to you, how much your donation was appreciated."
"Well, they are very welcome. And now I wish I had given more."
Such a coincidence that we both got something in our eye at the same time.
There's something in my eye, too!!
ReplyDeleteThat could be a Chicken Soup story--for teachers. You have several months before the deadline.
ReplyDeletefishducky,
ReplyDeleteThere's something going around, I think.
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Sioux,
No no no. It might embarrass the family if they ever saw it.
Satisfying, isn't it? Last year, when I was in Georgia seeing my dad, I helped a young woman and her child get settled in a little house. She had pretty much nothing and I paid all the deposits for her to get her started. HeWho got a little perturbed at me about the money I spent, then he met them on his trip to see my dad. He spent some money and fixed all the little things in the house, like leaky faucets and such. Nothing has ever felt so great. We decided to tell our kids that we had spent their gift money, as well as our own to each other for Christmas on this little family. They were all okay with the idea. I didn't get the chance to do it this past Christmas, but we have decided to do this annually, as our family gift to each other.
ReplyDelete