Donor makes family's holiday brighter

Members of the Hoodstock organization delivered a surprise Thanksgiving Day basket full of holiday goodies to the Soto family’s front door in Patterson.

Albert and Geraldine Soto are the grandparents of Francisco Sierra. Sierra, a recent Morgan City High graduate, was critically injured in a car accident during the month of April.

Hoodstock posted a notice on Facebook Nov. 17 seeking a family to sponsor for the Thanksgiving holiday.

As for the motivation behind this act, “to be totally honest, it was spontaneous,” said Hoodstock founder and organizer Courtney Long.

“The donor wanted to do something anonymously for a family and wanted to know if the Hoodstock organization wanted to sponsor it.”

The idea came all together within a matter of three days.

Jada Soto, sister-in-law of Geraldine Soto, nominated the Soto family. She knows firsthand what the family has been through.

“I feel like they deserve it,” Jada Soto said. “They’ve had a really rough year, and they’ve raised these boys since they were younger. And they’ve come a long way within the last couple of years.

“It’s hard raising three boys in school and in a lot of sports and everything, but they’ve done a really good job. They deserve it.”

“She’s been with me throughout all of this,” Geraldine Soto said. “All of them have, my whole family. I don’t know what we would have done without them.
“It’s been rough but you know what? They make it easy on me, believe it or not. It’s not so bad.”

And this Thanksgiving her family continues to make it easy, since she was selected to receive a turkey, ham and all the fixings for a delicious Thanksgiving meal, including pies. The family plans to spend Thanksgiving at Jada Soto’s house.

Receiving the Thanksgiving meal basket “was very, very touching,” Geraldine Soto said.

“We appreciate everything, the support. I’ve just been blessed throughout this year so much. And this is just another one. I’m so overjoyed.”

Thanksgiving takes on a different meaning for the family in light of Sierra’s complications post the car accident.

“This year’s Thanksgiving is a very precious one for us because of Francisco and everything that he’s been through. I just can’t be … happier and more blessed.”

Sierra wore a Superman T-shirt at the time of the basket delivery. And those superpowers continue to wondrously work in his life as his injuries are on the mend.

After the accident, Sierra had surgery. As a result, he entered into a comatose state. Coming out of the coma, he quickly began to show signs of healing.

He doesn’t quite remember graduation day, Geraldine Soto said. But his communication skills and memory are getting better every day. He is walking on his own and is determined to be independent.

Sierra told his family not to be mad and to forgive the people involved in the car accident while Hoodstock representatives were still present.

“I’ve been truly blessed to have such an amazing family,” Sierra said.

His grandmother constantly gives thanks and recognition to God for all obstacles overcome by the family this year.

“Francisco’s story really touched us,” Long said. “We had some stories to come through but that one stood out more than all the others.”

Grandparents stepping in as primary caregivers of their grandchildren stood out the most in Jada Soto’s story submission to Hoodstock.

“This is a grandmother, not a mother or father, a grandmother whose taken a responsibility of taking care of three boys,” said Hoodstock organizer Danika Foley.

“And you know boys can really eat. Not only that, there are expenses when it comes to taking care of children. In light of that, you have hospital bills and everything that goes with taking care of children.

“And when you’re a grandparent, you’re most likely just there to spoil the child. They have become parents. They are living with them. They’ve had to open their home up 24/7 and also take care of medical expenses.”

“Not only going back and forth to the hospital,” Long said, “we know for a fact that can become taxing on a family, missing work, just answering the call of duty.”

And that’s what Hoodstock was looking for, a family who would greatly benefit from receiving the Thanksgiving basket.

“We tried to put a guideline on what family we were going to choose,” Long said. “We really wanted a family that we could bless, that could actually use this.”

“And it was because of Jada, Jada’s words,” Foley said. “Jada was the one who really had to drive it home. Even though we might have known the story, we had to hear it from her. What were the problems?

“What were the issues that needed to be taken care of?”

The Thanksgiving holiday is a time set aside for gratitude.

“The Sotos were very grateful and very thankful,” Foley said. “And that’s what Thanksgiving is all about.”

Hoodstock is a non-profit organization focused on giving back to the community.

“It’s about having stock in your neighborhood, no matter where you are from or what area of the community,” Foley said. “It doesn’t matter.

“Reaching within and not having to look to other sources, look to your neighbors, look to your friends. That’s what we are about.”

“And also promoting self-sufficiency,” Long said. “This fell in line with what our purpose is anyway. It was a no brainer to jump on it.”