1st grader asks for food, blanket in heartbreaking letter to Santa

[dalton99a]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/1st-grader-asks-food-blanket-heartbreaking-letter-santa/story?id=51832337
1st grader asks for food, blanket in heartbreaking letter to Santa
By Morgan Winsor
Dec 16, 2017, 4:23 PM ET


A first grade student's letter to Santa at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Edinburg, Texas, Dec. 13, 2017.

A first grader's heartbreaking letter to Santa has spurred a flood of donations, after her teacher shared the humble wish list on social media.

Ruth Espiricueta, a first-grade teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Edinburg, Texas, asked her students this week to write a letter to Santa Claus about something they want and something they need, after a lesson about the difference between the two. When school was dismissed for the day, Espiricueta began reading the letters and was taken aback in particular by one student's note.

The 7-year-old girl wrote to Santa, “I have [been] good this day. This Christmas I would like a ball and a food. I need a [blanket].”

"I never expected for students to ask for things we usually take for granted," Espiricueta told ABC News. "I was heartbroken because no one should ever go hungry or be cold on winter nights."

[NightWatcher]

1. But the fuckin billionaires get a tax cut that'll prob be funded by taking away services for her.

[lpbk2713]

2. Are we great again yet?

Truck Fump.

[spooky3]

3. so sad. At least a little help is on the way:

"The letter inspired the principal at Monte Cristo Elementary School to start a donation drive, with a goal of collecting 724 blankets to give to each student. So far, 616 blankets have been donated."

She also needs food. I hope people can help while we continue to struggle against the Republican cuts for children like her.

[democratisphere]

4. No one should go hungry in the USA or even the world.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Similar true story over a century ago: Eddie Cantor

Eddie Cantor grew up poor, an orphan living with his grandmother in the Lower East Side. There was a Letter to Santa contest being put on by William Randolph Heart and the New York Journal. Little Eddie wrote a letter that he was sure would win the contest. He wrote that he was a poor orphan, he had been good, and all he wanted for Christmas were a coat, boots, and a sled. Christmas Day. Nothing. The little boy was sitting outside on the stoop, watching other kids laugh and scream with their sleds and coats and mittens. He's freezing. His grandmother couldn't get him to come in to have hot tea. Around sunset, a big truck with the New York Journal logo pulled up, asking for him. He won the contest! The coat, boots, and sled! From that day forward, Santa Claus had the face of William Randolph Hearst to the future entertainer.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

6. Sarah Huckabee should read THAT letter at her press briefing.

[rurallib]

7. if she did, it would be followed by a diatribe on fake media,

the welfare state and no doubt a heaping helping of implied racism and who knows what other despicable crap she would throw in.

Then she would deny it all the next day.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Thanks for posting.

I just sent the link to this story to one of the local news stations here in Austin asking them to air this story and to please find an online donation source (I did a quick search but could not find one). I suspect that this child is not the only one in the community going hungry. Edinburg is not too far from the border with Mexico, and there is quite a bit of poverty there.

[Roland99]

9. Heres the thing

Who hasn’t dreamed of doing things like paying off lay-a-ways, school lunch accounts, picking every angel from the angel tree, providing toys for every kid registered for Toys for Tots if you had the money (powerball or something)

Apparently everyone but America’s billionaires and slush fund donors.

Born into privilege and worshiping objectivism and selfishness.


I just don’t get it.

[Marie Marie]

10. Besides the obvious sadness of him asking for 2 basic necessities like food and a blanket,

the only toy he wants is a BALL. Not an XBox or a cell phone, just a ball. Sigh! And thanks to this new tax bill and the coming cuts to our social safety net, food will likely continue to be on his wish list. What has happened to this country?

[bluecollar2]

11. Not surprised

Texas GOP and their TaliBaptist owners have decimated the public school system and the social safety net over the lasr twenty years.

Started when Anne Richards lost to shrub.

The cycle of poverty is deliberate in Texas.

[trueblue2007]

12. i wish there was a go fund me account set up.

[dembotoz]

13. Yes I would hope something was done