There really is a Santa
Yes, Virginia, the Christmas spirit is alive and well in this city, across the GTA and beyond.
While it might seem we've had more than our share of crime and tragedy lately, we see the spirit of goodwill all around us, as surely as we see scandal, poverty or crime.
In the past month, even as the murder toll mounted, tax money was wasted and millionaire sports and entertainment "stars" drove the public crazy, there was no shortage of truly inspiring stories. To name just a few:
* The Christmas spirit was at work in the amazing tale of Debbie Peliti, who stumbled over a parcel containing $40,000 in the middle of Kingston Rd. on Dec. 6. The welfare mom of six went straight across the street to the TD bank and handed over the money. "It wasn't mine," she told the Sun, explaining why she had no thought of keeping it, and expected no reward. And that's just what she got -- until a few days later when the bank sweetened her Christmas with a cheque for $2,000. Premier Dalton McGuinty promised the money would not be clawed back from Peliti's benefits. (And he kept the promise.)
* The Christmas spirit moved hundreds of GTA residents to help housecleaner Marta Goncalo, 23, after the Sun's Michele Mandel detailed the former abused single mom's struggle to raise a nine-year-old girl and a severely disabled baby son. "Christmas is really sad," Goncalo said, noting her daughter had lost faith in Santa Claus because she had never received what she asked for. A fundraising campaign spearheaded by Shelley Batcules and Jim Torma raised more than $10,000 for the family.
* The Christmas spirit made this month a little brighter for the three children who witnessed the murder-suicide of their mom, Cimmeron Doncaster, 24, and a boyfriend a month ago. Toronto firefighters and Santa Claus delivered gifts and cash donations to them by sleigh and fire truck last week -- the least they could do, said firefighter spokesman Scott Marks, "since our guys were first on scene and saw what trauma these kids went through."
* The Christmas spirit made sure a World War II veteran's 89-year-old widow got the help the federal government wouldn't give her. Among the good Samaritans who pitched in for Lena Emmerson of Georgetown after the feds denied her home maintenance benefits was snowplow operator Joe Ruscica. "Her husband did his good deed, and now it's someone else's turn," Ruscica told the Sun.
* And lest we forget, the Christmas spirit moved Sun readers to raise a whopping $75,000 to help the late Cpl. Fred Topham's partroop regiment save his Victoria Cross.
As the New York Sun's editors told that famous Virginia in 1897, stories like these prove there is a Santa Claus. "He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist," they wrote, "and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy." Yes, we surely do.
Yes, Virginia, the Christmas spirit is alive and well in this city, across the GTA and beyond.
While it might seem we've had more than our share of crime and tragedy lately, we see the spirit of goodwill all around us, as surely as we see scandal, poverty or crime.
In the past month, even as the murder toll mounted, tax money was wasted and millionaire sports and entertainment "stars" drove the public crazy, there was no shortage of truly inspiring stories. To name just a few:
* The Christmas spirit was at work in the amazing tale of Debbie Peliti, who stumbled over a parcel containing $40,000 in the middle of Kingston Rd. on Dec. 6. The welfare mom of six went straight across the street to the TD bank and handed over the money. "It wasn't mine," she told the Sun, explaining why she had no thought of keeping it, and expected no reward. And that's just what she got -- until a few days later when the bank sweetened her Christmas with a cheque for $2,000. Premier Dalton McGuinty promised the money would not be clawed back from Peliti's benefits. (And he kept the promise.)
* The Christmas spirit moved hundreds of GTA residents to help housecleaner Marta Goncalo, 23, after the Sun's Michele Mandel detailed the former abused single mom's struggle to raise a nine-year-old girl and a severely disabled baby son. "Christmas is really sad," Goncalo said, noting her daughter had lost faith in Santa Claus because she had never received what she asked for. A fundraising campaign spearheaded by Shelley Batcules and Jim Torma raised more than $10,000 for the family.
* The Christmas spirit made this month a little brighter for the three children who witnessed the murder-suicide of their mom, Cimmeron Doncaster, 24, and a boyfriend a month ago. Toronto firefighters and Santa Claus delivered gifts and cash donations to them by sleigh and fire truck last week -- the least they could do, said firefighter spokesman Scott Marks, "since our guys were first on scene and saw what trauma these kids went through."
* The Christmas spirit made sure a World War II veteran's 89-year-old widow got the help the federal government wouldn't give her. Among the good Samaritans who pitched in for Lena Emmerson of Georgetown after the feds denied her home maintenance benefits was snowplow operator Joe Ruscica. "Her husband did his good deed, and now it's someone else's turn," Ruscica told the Sun.
* And lest we forget, the Christmas spirit moved Sun readers to raise a whopping $75,000 to help the late Cpl. Fred Topham's partroop regiment save his Victoria Cross.
As the New York Sun's editors told that famous Virginia in 1897, stories like these prove there is a Santa Claus. "He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist," they wrote, "and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy." Yes, we surely do.
