After Daniel Hunt and his family lost everything in a house fire, his third-grade classmates from Philadelphia Elementary School in Tennessee knew they had to help. Together with their teachers, they held a secret toy drive for Daniel. The students spent a week gathering together the toys and games Daniel loves.
“The kids could not wait to do this for Daniel,” Philadelphia Elementary School counselor Kelly Jones told Today. “It was amazing to witness the excitement these third-grade kids had while sneaking in toys.”
During the week following the horrible house fire, Daniel’s 8-year-old classmates “couldn’t love him enough,” Kelly Jones said. His fellow Philly “Warriors” held doors open for him. They got his pencil ready each morning and took his chair down from his desk so he didn’t have to. All the little things were done to show there love and concern for their friend. They even rallied around him at recess, making sure he played. The hardest thing for them to do was not to tell Daniel about the surprise.
“They kept the best secret,” says Jones.
On the Friday they were to give the gifts, the third-graders excitedly waited for Daniel Hunt to enter the classroom and then yelled a mighty big “Surprise!”
When Daniel saw what his friends had done for him he was speechless. He finally responded with “I love it! Everyone come here,” he said, with his arms open wide and Daniel’s joy turned into a big group hug with all his awesome classmates. What a beautiful display of friendship.
Kelly Jones said that “Every adult and even a few students had tears swelling up in their eyes who were in the room to witness this.” She went on to say, “I feel extremely blessed to have witnessed the pure love and giving from the hearts of the third-grade students at my school,” says Jones.
While his grandmother, Marsha Hunt, was driving Daniel home from school he was overwhelmed with happiness. She told us in a Facebook post that Daniel commented saying, “I’M HAPPY CRYING”, and I HAVE JOY IN MY STOMACH”. She said “I love that his friends gave from their heart to this special little grandson, they were so excited to give! He has looked at each and every toy, big and small, and he loves them all. Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!”
Pass it on!!!
