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Please enjoy this article by Joyce Reehling, "If I Were President, Kind Answers Are Heartwarming" reprinted with Joyce's permission.
I walked into the Pine Crest Inn just as Santa was getting ready to greet waves of first-graders who were to meet him, his two Elves and have some hot chocolate and do some thinking.
There is a main Elf at the Pine Crest whose name is Drew — don’t spread this around because he is one busy Elf — and he invited me to see some of kids with Santa (Frankie), Elf Donathan and Elf Jessica. It was thrilling enough to meet these representatives from The Pole but to see the light in the eyes of the kids-it never get old.
Elf Drew always provides each child with a piece of paper with one question to answer, and this year it revealed what is on some first-graders’ minds. If I were President of the United States I would …
I found reading the 100 answers to be enlightening and not a little amusing as kids that age struggle with proper spelling, but the real gift was what was in their hearts. Mainly it was kindness toward others.
Here are some of their own words with corrected spelling for ease of reading:
- Be good and help homeless people and make some changes so our community is good again.
- Make Christmas amazing. Feed people. Eat cookies every day and have ice cream for breakfast.
- I want to help animals.
- Feed people that did not have food. (This one came with an illustration of two people; one saying “Thank you,” and the other responding, “You’re welcome.”
- I would make sure everyone is happy. I would make sure everyone is safe.
- I would make people have freedom.
- I would make schools do Pokemon.
- Make a theme park everywhere. (This came with an illustration of a very wild roller coaster to make the point very clear!)
- Give to the homeless. I would make sure everyone had a home.
- Give food to African people.
- I would make a new school.
- I would end school.
- I would boss everyone around. (We can hope this child outgrows this point of view.)
- Make people read books.
- I would make everyone ride a horse.
- Lower prices.
- Make it illegal to litter.
- I will let the people that have no stuff and money have a good life and live some place that they can stay.
- I would delete green beans.
- I would get more teachers.
- Give people cars for free.
- Give people water and food.
- I would get in the car and say Hi to everyone.
- Make more schools.
- Make sure everyone is safe.
I wish that you could see all the drawings and misspellings because it all has a special charm that brings a smile — even if one of them wants to boss everyone around.
What struck me was how often food insecurity and homelessness came up for these 100 kids. The percentage was much higher on the side of concerns than it was on demands for cookies and runaway grab for no school.
This lovely morning with Santa and Elves is doing something sneaky, it is making the children have a moment of consideration. Their words tell us what is going on in the minds of some of our children, some of their fears and hopes. I wondered just how many of them might have a sense of food insecurity in their very short past or indeed in their present.
They know that people are in want and need. They know that they may not be safe all the time. They know that cookies and ice cream for breakfast is always a good idea.
Seeing children abandon their usual defenses and pretenses because they are with Santa is always a good way to see into the inner workings of a child. They, at this age, still see Santa as an agent of good, joy and giving. We all know there will come a time — sadly too soon — that Santa will become, “Oh, I never believed in Santa.”
But Santa is our chance to lay down our heavily built-up walls and let our souls sing.
At the Pine Crest Inn this week I saw him in full swing and so did 100 untarnished souls.
Thank you, Elf Drew and the team, for giving us all a moment of thoughtfulness and hot chocolate. It fills my heart to know our children have the candle of kindness and caring glowing in their souls so early. It did me no end of good. It gave me hope.
Reprinted from The Pilot Newspaper.
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