By Taylor Short/reporter3@trcle.com
Santa Claus came a couple of days early — in a bright yellow tractor — for one family in Johnson County whose Christmas was looking dim this year.
Santa traded his reindeer for a front-loader and at about 4 p.m. Monday, he arrived with a Christmas police convoy at the home of Steve Pekrul and his family.
The police cruiser leading the convoy quickly blasted its siren, and six children exploded out the door as Santa maneuvered the front scoop filled with toys, food and other items Pekrul said his family needed.
“I’ve been out of work for about three months. I’m self-employed, and my customer base is nothing. It wasn’t looking good,” he said.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Jerry Stringer wanted to help a family this holiday season, and since then his office, road crew and people in the community collected enough donations to help four families this year.
Rick Hope, pastor at First Baptist Church in Lillian, connected Stringer with families he believes deserve a good Christmas.
“This worked from every angle. We talked to businesses, folks that lived in our community; we talked to our vendors and got support across the board,” he said. “Not one person told us no. These guys put their heart into this.”
Stringer said hundreds of people attended the Precinct 3 open house event on Dec. 17, many bringing toys or food to donate.
As the kids carried armfuls of gifts into the home like a line of ants through the front yard, Pekrul and his wife thanked Stringer and the men and women in Precinct 3 with tearful hugs.
“It’s like a giant,” Pekrul sighs with relief. “It’s like a lot stress off our shoulders, a lot of excitement. And really, we didn’t know what we were going to do for the kids. Right now, we were just kind of figuring out how we could get day-to-day living items.”
Stringer also presented Pekrul and his family with gift cards and monetary donations.
Although Pekrul and his wife Sherri knew, they said the children had no clue Santa would come that day.
“In fact they thought we were having a meeting with a social worker because one of our daughters has complained about how awful her life is,” Sherri Pekrul said tongue-in-cheek, explaining her daughter’s dish-washing duties and how she’s grounded from the phone. “She complained to the principal, so we kind of used that as a little trick.”
A full-sized, decorated Christmas tree stands in one corner of the living room with several wrapped packages streaming across the floor from underneath the tree.
“Miranda made a comment that she had thought because we had mentioned that we were going to have a pretty small Christmas,” Sherri said. “She said, ‘I was thinking just the other day. What if someone just brought us a bunch of toys? It really happened, they’re here, Mom!’ ”
The family and their friends, and especially their children, wore smiles as if it were already Christmas morning.
Stepping inside their home, one girl, Ali, said ‘Look at our presents!’
“I was scared,” Ali said. “I thought it was the police because I thought we were in trouble, but then I saw Santa.”
