Burger King brightens family’s Christmas

NEW ULM -- The local Burger King made one family's Christmas on Friday, Dec. 23, with a pile of gifts.

As part of its Snowman campaign the restaurant raised money to purchase gifts and give a free meal to a family in need. Christy Diel and her two kids Evan and Christina Delacruz were selected by the company.

"I am so very thankful they did this for me because otherwise I would not have been able to do hardly anything for my kids for Christmas," Christy Diel said. "It is very kind and sweet of everybody in the community that helped donate toward this and we greatly appreciate it and I hope one day I am going to be in a position to do something nice someone else too."

Diel currently lives in the New Ulm Motel. She recently had to give up a supervisory job for one with better hours for her to take care of her autistic son.

Diel has not been able to find childcare that can support her son and with her new job she will not be receiving her first paycheck until January, too late for Christmas gifts.

As part of the Snowman campaign Burger King began asking local non-profits about families that could use the gifts. Then the restaurant put it on its Facebook page.

Diel's friend Stephanie Gonzales saw it and nominated her. The restaurant considered her story and decided that she deserved a helping hand.

During the campaign customers could purchase snowman shaped decorations for $1 to sign and hang up. More than $800 was raised this way, plastering the walls behind the counter and a divider near the front of the store with paper snowmen.

A matching donation to the money raised will be given by the owner (whose name was not released) to a yet-to-be-determined charity.