Dear Santa,
My name is Justice White Sloan. I am a 9-year-old little girl from Greenwich and this Christmas I am going on a journey - a journey to help a sick child get a wish.
"I had a complicated pregnancy," recalled the girl's mother, Tiffany.
"They didn't think she would make it. When I was pregnant, I craved ice all the time, so when she was born we spelled it ‘Just Ice.' Since she was born, she's been proving everybody wrong. That's what she's done her entire life."
Dear Santa,
If you look at me I look just like you but on the inside I am very different. I have a disease called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
It is a very big word but it means that my body can't clean my liver and lungs so a lot of my cells die or turn into scar tissue instead of getting new ones like you do.
There are a lot of kids who don't want what they have and I want to make them happy with themselves this year.
"Her biggest thing is wanting to make someone else feel special," Tiffany said.
"When she was 5 years old, she used the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They take children with life-threatening illnesses and make a wish come true."
Two days after Justice got out of the Intensive Care unit, she was in Florida, courtesy of the foundation.
She met Santa Claus and went to Disney World. She was visited by SpongeBob SquarePants at the villa where she stayed for a week that housed kids with terminal illnesses.
"For a week, she got to be a kid. All smiles. Nobody had time to stop and think of what's wrong with them," Tiffany said.
Not all sick kids know about this. I want to help them.
All I need you to do is take a few minutes and write a letter to Santa, which you should do anyway to get the good stuff.
Macy's is willing to give Make-A-Wish $1 for every letter to Santa sent from
their store.
So I decided I would collect 1,000 letters. This is not a competition
this is just me. This is my dream.
The dream is to collect the letters, deliver them
to Macy's and help a kid
realize a dream, like she
did.
"This is Justice's journey. She started two weeks ago and it's exploded," Tiffany said. "She's already got about 200 letters that have been coming in from all over the place. It's turned into this huge thing and now it's more of a reason for her to fight.
"She did say she hoped that Santa wouldn't get mad at her for sending him so many of the letters. I said I didn't think so."
The family has set up
drop locations in Greenwich and Argyle, and is
encouraging kids of all
ages, wherever they are,
to write a letter to Santa,
c/o the North Pole and use one of the drop-off locations.
With her goal set at securing 1,000 letters to Santa, Justice will be collecting the letters for the next few weeks and delivering them to the Macy's location in Albany.
Dear Parents,
When you tuck your kids in on Christmas Eve, think of what you did for a child who may never have another Christmas Eve.
I know this is sad but it is true.
Show me and every other child out there what it means to really believe in miracles. Make them come true.
Imagine if we get more than 1,000 letters. That would be a true Christmas miracle.
Letters to Santa may also be mailed directly to Justice at 143 Eddy St., Greenwich, NY 12834.
Posted in Saratoga on Monday, November 23, 2009 10:55 am
© Copyright 2010, The Post-Star, Lawrence & Cooper Streets Glens Falls, NY | Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
