It only took a couple hours for two soldiers to make a very special young man’s Christmas wish come true.
“This is all he’s been talking about for a month,” said Sarah Roby, Positive Behavior Support Specialist at Community Living of Kentucky. One of her clients is a 7-year-old, energetic boy named Luke who had a very particular Christmas wish this year.
The story goes that Luke’s class had a project where the students got to write a “Christmas wish list.” Luke, a big fan of all things military, said what he wanted more than anything was to go shopping with a soldier. “I want to shop with soldiers because they protect the world. They are in danger to keep us safe. They are good people,” Luke said.
When Sarah heard about Luke’s wish, she put a call in to her friend, who was a Marine, who in turn arranged for several fellow servicemen to accompany Luke as he went Christmas shopping for his family.
Jim Goodwin (National Guard) and Paul Mattingly (Army Reserves) were happy to oblige, so they showed up in uniform to grant Luke’s wish at the designated place this afternoon.
“He wouldn’t have cared if it was grocery shopping, he just wanted to go shopping with a soldier,” Roby said, as she helped check items off Luke’s list each time he placed another gift in the cart.
“We just met Luke this morning. He’s a great kid,” Mattingly said. “We enjoy doing this, especially making someone’s Christmas wish come true. You can’t beat that! It’s the least we could do.”
In the midst of cross-crossing the store and talking with Luke about Star Wars, several shoppers stopped to thank Goodwin and Mattingly for their service. “You’re welcome. And thank you for your support,” they replied each time, with a firm handshake and a smile.
Luke, Sarah and his new hero friends ended their shopping trip with lunch at Chick-Fil-A. “Shopping with them is exactly what I thought it would be,” Luke said, recapping the day. It was awesome!”
