Confession: I’m grasping onto every single feel-good Christmas story with everything I have while I can. It’s not over until the new year rings in.
That being said, a group of Antioch High School students really showed up and showed out for their classmate this year after his Nintendo 3DS game console was stolen.
According to WABC-TV, Shawn Hawkins, a 10th-grader at the school, was incredibly upset when he realized that someone had taken his device. Children normally feel outrage when they lose something or something is stolen, but for Shawn, the game system represented something even bigger.
“I want to work at Nintendo when I grow up,” he told the news site.
So when his device was taken during gym class earlier this month, he took it especially hard.
“My backpack was too big, so I couldn’t put it inside my locker. So I just put it near my locker,” he explained.
Devastated by the loss, he pleaded with the school’s community, even writing on the community whiteboard asking for it to be returned.
Of course, many would have expected that to be the end of it, with the game console gone, never to be returned. But it turns out that Shawn has some pretty great friends, including 11th-grader Shawna Cantiliano.
“He’s a sweet kid and he doesn’t do anything wrong to anyone. And it’s really bad for him,” she said.
So Shawna, along with another friend, Piper Stowe, began secretly collecting money from students and faculty to raise money to buy Shawn a new one.
“I told a couple of people I was raising money, and they were like, ‘Oh, that kid who got his DS stolen; that’s funny.’ I said, ‘That’s not funny,’” Shawna explained.
At the end, the friends’ act of kindness came through for Shawn.
“I think we need to learn to appreciate these moments more and to induce them more,” Piper added.
Antioch High School Principal Louie Rocha couldn’t agree more with the high schoolers.
“Shawn, I think, found out that people care about and are looking out for him. And for Shawna and Piper, I think the rewards of giving were pretty special as well,” he told the news station.
Read more at WABC-TV.