Raffle winner gives someone else a chance


Yakima Herald-Republic

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GRANGER -- Jose Mendoza didn't need a second bike. The one he had was practically brand new.

So, when the second-grader's name was drawn from a hat for a new bike last week during the Roosevelt Elementary School's year-end assembly, he walked down to the gymnasium floor and quietly asked Principal Janet Wheaton to give it to somebody else.

"I don't feel right about this," Wheaton recalls him saying.

Wheaton made Jose announce his decision into the microphone, and all 600 students erupted in applause.

His parents are Salomon and Ermenejilda Mendoza. Ermenejilda said her son thought of the good deed on his own.

The school raffles off 12 bicycles, donated by community groups, at the end of each year as reading achievement prizes.

Jose didn't go away empty-handed. Immediately after Wheaton announced his act of generosity, school staff began collecting a cash donation for him.

By the time the assembly was over, $95 had been stuffed into an envelope with his name on it.