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Nashville Hispanic Chamber plays Santa to children turned away by local charities

LatinaLista — Headlines are always filled with bad news. In fact, conventional thinking in the news industry is the worse the headline, the bigger the attraction.

Unfortunately, it works.

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Yet, there should always be a time where we can take a rest from the bad headlines and see that there does exist good in the world.

So, in these last few days before Christmas, Latina Lista will dedicate this space to those “good” headlines.

Last night, we talked about the community-wide effort to launch a campaign to bring a bookstore to Laredo, Texas. Today, we have another story where a community came together to do some good.

Santa pays a visit to Nashville-area children at a special Christmas party sponsored by the Nashville Hispanic Chamber.

A few weeks ago, it was discovered that some Christmas charities were excluding needy children from their gift lists because their parents didn’t have the proper identification papers — in other words, they might be undocumented.

The biggest organization guilty of this practice was the Salvation Army with its Angel Tree program. After it was discovered that some children had been turned away and there was a public outcry, some Salvation Army locations discontinued the practice but there were still charities excluding families who didn’t have Social Security numbers.

That was the case in Nashville, TN.

News got out that one child had been turned away by a local charity because the parents didn’t have the proper paperwork. So, the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce decided to do something about it.

The chamber invited dozens of children to a special Christmas party were food, Santa and a gift was given to each child — no questions asked.

“I think that we understand there may be some rules that will keep some people out of the equation, but I think that’s what we are here for,” said chamber president Yuri Cunza. “That’s why other neighbors, other members of our community are here, and they are stepping up to the challenge. We are very proud of that.”

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Comment(1)

  • Alonzo
    January 5, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    I’ll put it to you this way. If there are 1000 gifts and 1050 children, 50 of whom are illegal aliens, who should receive the gifts, the Americans or the Mexican illegal aliens? Would you deny gifts to people who belong here, your fellow Americans, or trespassing foreigners? This is a zero sum game, as there may be insufficient resources to support both. Remember, illegal aliens might otherwise receive gifts at the expense of legal Hispanic children.

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