• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Memories of Christmas: When an act of kindness made a lifetime impression

Karen Schlichter, named fairest of the Walworth County Fair in September, remembers when a stranger's kindness made Christmas special. Dan Plutchak/file.

Editor's note — Writer Margaret Plevak has found some of the magic of the season, from the carols on the radio and the twinkling lights throughout the neighborhood to the pageants held on elementary school stages.

Each day this week on WalworthCountyToday.com, we'll publish a favorite Christmas Memory from a Walworth County resident. Read all the memories in Walworth County Sunday HERE.

Karen Schlichter, Walworth County 2010 Fairest of the Fair and a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in agronomy: When I was in first-grade, my family didn’t have a lot of money, and my mom, a single parent, was waitressing at the time and going to nursing school. The principal of my school, Tibbets Elementary School in Elkhorn, was contacted by someone from a church group who wanted to help a struggling family at Christmas, and the principal thought of us right away. The church members shopped for us, and we got so much stuff that year.

I was 6 and my sister was 5, and it was wonderful to wake up on Christmas morning and see all these presents piled under the Christmas tree. I remember I got a Winnie-the-Pooh backpack and I believe I got a stuffed animal — a character from “The Jungle Book.”

My mom, who now works at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, told us who had brought the gifts. Now as an adult, I never let a Christmas pass without making a donation myself. Usually at school or work there will be a “giving tree” with requests for gifts for families in need. I know how much that gift meant to me.

Read all seven memories of Christmas from local residents in the Dec. 19, 2010 e-edition of Walworth County Sunday, HERE.