Girl’s Generosity

Re “Giving Back,” Nov. 19.

Ten-year-old Veronica [Pomeroy of Calabasas] exemplifies true giving from the heart. She responded to an ad in a magazine which asked for shoe boxes filled with goodies to be sent to underprivileged children around the world by devising a plan and then gaining support from two girlfriends, Lexi Cline and Lindsay Rich, and her principal, Martha Mutz at Bay Laurel Elementary School. Three hundred boxes later, she had not only achieved her goal to make other kids happy over the holidays, but she had given us a precious gift as well. We are deeply impressed by her sensitivity to the needs of others and her resolve to “make it happen.”

Thank you, Veronica, for having a vision and seeing it through to the end.

GAIL SMITH

Westlake Village

* Although the Calabasas schoolchildren have wonderful intentions in collecting holiday gifts for needy children around the world, they might have served their own community better.

Here in Los Angeles are many children who receive no gifts at Christmas.

Imagine the sadness of a child who sees gifts and toys on TV and in advertisements, but this child is too poor to receive anything more than a handmade card from his mother with an IOU. He lives in the middle of a society that celebrates and decorates. At school the other children talk of what they got for Christmas, but his simple Christmas of homemade cookies does not include a tree or gifts.

In other places around the world, the child lives in a village where everyone is equally poor. Can this child be as sad as the city child when he does not see others flaunting wealth every day? Most likely his friends are poor like him, he has fields to play in and is not poked fun at because his clothes are worn thin and don’t match.

Why can’t we open our hearts and pocketbooks a little this season and give a dollar to the poor-looking mother in front of us in line at the market or at least give to the local, small nonprofit group struggling for funding?

JUDY ANDERSON

Canoga Park