Girl (7) touches hearts after asking Santa for food
A LITTLE girl’s Christmas wish for basic necessities instead of expensive presents has inspired an international outpouring of generosity.
Crystal Pacheco (7), from Texas, asked for a blanket, some food, and a ball (to give to her brother) in a letter to Santa she wrote at school.
Her letter has highlighted the hardship some families in her home city of Edinburg face, where almost one in three of the 87,500 residents lives below the poverty line.
She wrote: “I have [been] good this day. This Christmas I would like a ball and food. I need a blanket.”
Her mother, Maria Isabel Cortez, told KRGV TV: “She wrote the card thinking about her brother, she said she wanted the ball to play with him, food to have food at the house, and a blanket because the house is too cold.”
Ruth Espiricueta, her teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary, said reading the letter was “heartbreaking”, adding: “As a teacher, it breaks my heart when I hear them ask for things that we sometimes take for granted.
“Hopefully, I will be able to fulfil at least one of their Christmas wishes.”
She said other children “even asked for towels and water”, and had no heat at home, while others “didn’t see the point in Christmas”.
The letter prompted hundreds of responses from across the US and as far as the UK, from people offering to donate blankets, toys and gift cards. (© Daily Telegraph, London)