Published: December 27, 2008 01:45 pm      

Family receives surprise Christmas

Martindale — “Believe in Martindale” say the bumper stickers and, this year, Christmas tree ornaments.

On Christmas Day, belief became more than slogan for one Caldwell County family who found themselves down on their luck. And that belief that things would get better — at least for the day — arrived before dawn on firetrucks.

The surprise Christmas was delivered to Martindale volunteer firefighters George and Margaret Sosa and their four children by fellow volunteers.

“We responded to one of our own this Christmas,” said Jerry Dickerson, chief of the MVFD. And, they managed to keep it all a secret.

Dickerson first learned of the family’s situation when asked to buy a $2 ticket to a fundraiser for the couple’s four-year-old daughter, who has leukemia. The more he learned, the worse the story got.

In the course of taking the girl to San Antonio for frequent treatments, a traffic accident left the family’s car totaled and Margaret Sosa’s back badly hurt, requiring surgery with pins and rods, Dickerson said.

Then the van George Sosa drove to work gave out “and he wound up getting let go because he couldn’t get to work.”

Dickerson e-mailed other volunteers in the department that the family’s water and electricity were about to be cut off, that the dryer, refrigerator and couch were all broken and the family had but $20 to scrape together presents for their daughter and her three older brothers.

Dickerson said on Christmas Eve that efforts on the family’s behalf had been going on for two weeks. “The theme behind this is letting them know their community loves them. They’ve shown their love for the community” by being volunteer firefighters, he said.

“We felt this was something we could do,” he continued. “A lot of people got behind it, volunteered their time.”

Dickerson hinted that those who volunteered felt they were getting something out of the effort as well.

“This may be the beginning of a Martindale Red Santa program,” he said.