A Las Vegas English Teacher is celebrating the spirit of giving after her plea to fulfill foster students’ Christmas wishlists brought in hundreds of donations.
According to “Today,” Cheri Guy teaches at-risk students at the Jaguar Academy in Desert Pines High School.
Many of her students live in poverty and have asked for presents like food and slippers. Guy posted to TikTok seeking help in giving these youths a merry Christmas.
She stated, “There’s no way, even all the teachers — if we all picked one student, we couldn’t cover everything.”
“There’s so many students and they don’t want a lot,” she added.
Her emotional plea went viral, and now the gifts keep pouring in.
Over 300 gifts have been received so far. Guy has 950 students to help, and she’s optimistic that these students can all have a very merry “Wishmas.”
This Wishmas event has become an annual event due to the need.
“We have a lot of kids who are in the foster system. We have a lot of kids who are living in poverty,” Guy explained.
“These kids are facing enormous stress outside of the classroom,” she went on.
The students’ Wishmas list is available on amazon.com and runs through Dec. 15.
When reflecting on the response, Guy told “Today,” “One of the most incredible things about Wishmas is these kids are realizing that they are loved — and not just by the staff at school, but by strangers around the country (who) care about them and believe in them.”
Guy has a sign in her classroom that she altered to better represent what she has witnessed. It says, “One Person Can Change a World.”
“It used to say, ‘One person can change the world,’ but I changed it to ‘a world,’ because it’s not about changing the whole world. That’s what overwhelms us,” she said.
Guy concluded, “But if you can just think about, ‘What can I do for one person?’ That’s changing a world — and if we could all do that? Just imagine what our society would turn into.”
