Eastern Idaho is extra fortunate this year because it has a local Secret Santa generously giving away $1 million to deserving people in the area.
Members of the Eastern Idaho News Team are the hard-working elves helping this Secret Santa distribute his extraordinary gift.
One of the recipients is sixth-grade teacher Jen.
She has two sons and a daughter she shares with her former husband.
In September, her daughter Brylee began feeling sick.
The eighth-grader was admitted to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for pneumonia.
However, her condition worsened over the next few days, and her kidneys were also becoming affected.
Brylee was transferred to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they found out that she had vasculitis, or an inflammation of the blood vessels in the nose, throat, kidneys, lungs, and sinuses.
Jen took a leave of absence from teaching to care for Brylee full-time.
While Brylee’s condition is improving, she is not yet completely recovered.
The road to recovery includes several medical procedures and surgeries.
The Eastern Idaho News Team went to Jen’s house to surprise her with gifts from Secret Santa.
However, when they knocked on her door, only her son and daughter were home.
They went back a second time, and still, they didn’t catch Jen at home.
Finally, on their third try, success! Jen’s sons opened the door and told the crew to wait for their mom to come out.
News reporter Nate Eaton asked her sons if they had told their mom about the surprise.
“We told her she was going to be filmed so she could be ready,” one of the brothers said.
This elicited a laugh from everyone, including Jen.
Eaton gave them their first gift to open.
Inside contained $2,000 in gas cards and $3,000 in grocery gift cards.
Secret Santa wanted to give them a gift that could help them with their daily expenses.
When they opened it, Jen hugged her son while he looked happily at his mom.
Eaton said he was sure that they would be putting lots of miles on their cars for doctor’s appointments.
“I’m heading there tomorrow, actually. She has one more procedure, then hopefully, we’ll only have to go down every month,” Jen shared.
The elves gave her one last box to open.
Her son took off the lid and a piece of paper inside.
Jen removed it from the box and saw it was a check.
It was a check for exactly $19,764 – her rent for one year.
Secret Santa covered her rent for a year so that she could free up more money for other needs.
“Secret Santa said he’s thinking about you guys, and he loves you, and he wanted to give you a really good Christmas,” Eaton said.
Jen thanked the team profusely for the life-changing gifts and hugged everyone on the news team.
Throughout the video, you could see how happy and touched Jen and her boys were by the wonderful gifts they received.
We love how one person’s generosity can have a profound effect on people’s lives.
Even better, Jen’s children will remember this as they grow up.
Hopefully, they will also give back to their own communities in their own way.
Watch the video below to see mom and teacher Jen receive one year’s worth of rent from Secret Santa
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