The service staff at schools are all too often overlooked, but they are where they are to help kids get the education they need. They’re cogs in a kid’s development, too.
But kids know who’s making a difference in their lives, and if there’s any doubt about that, just check out this inspiring interaction between a high school student body and Linda the lunch lady.
Students have made Linda the lunch lady go viral as a way of saying thanks for her amazing Grinch-inspired Christmas display.
Linda Kibler, 67, started working on the display in October, re-using many of the materials that came through the school like cardboard from food deliveries.
One of the students, Connor Kwilos, decided to share a proud Linda standing by her work on Reddit , captioning it simply “Our school lunch lady made this Christmas display by hand.”
Over 24 hours, she received a ton of love, with more than 170,000 upvotes.
That’s a huge, huge response, and the next day, Connor showed her what had happened online. This is Linda’s reaction to hearing how many people saw her art.
“Got to have a long conversation with Linda this morning,” Connor wrote in an update. “Showed her all of your lovely comments and she was incredibly moved.”
But Connor wasn’t content with merely sharing Linda’s work with the world.
He also set up a GoFundMe to try to make sure Linda has as merry a Christmas as possible, largely in response to a demand from the folks on Reddit.
“Hundreds of people wanted to be able to give back to Linda, so I’m starting this in the hopes we can chip in to make her holiday as perfect as it can be, and give back some love in a sign of appreciation for her hard work,” Connor wrote.
And as many others pointed out, the season of giving is a great time to recognize all the other worthy school projects that need funding.
Reddit user elinordash shared a sampling of the dozens of low-cost projects teachers asked for funding for on Donors Choose , and before long, all had been fully funded thanks in large part to the Reddit users following Connor’s post.
Well done, Reddit. This is the kind of spirit that really gets to you!
