Obama writes thank-you note to Longview girl
Associated Press, Sunday September 26, 2009
LONGVIEW, Wash. -- A Longview girl received a special letter from the White House recently. "Dear Katherine, thank you for taking the time to share your personal story with me..." begins the letter, from President Barack Obama's office. "I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your family member and I want you to know how much I admire your strength."
The letter is a response to an essay about "Three Things Important to Me" Katherine Bautista Lopez penned last March, when she was a St. Helens Elementary School fifth-grader.
In the essay, Katherine, 11, writes about losing her father to a car accident when she was 5 and the importance of education stressed upon her by her mother, a Mexican immigrant who speaks limited English.
Someday, Katherine wants to be a lawyer and the first Hispanic president of the United States, she wrote.
Fred Hanson, Katherine's teacher at St. Helens last year, said he was so impressed by Katherine's emotion and honesty that he shared her essay with a couple of colleagues.
"No one helped her with that. She just sat there and wrote it herself," he said. "Usually, (students write) 'I like to play with my X-Box.' She really wrote from the heart. I guess that's why it caught our attention."
Cynthia Hanson, Fred's wife and the community liaison for St. Helens, cried when she read Katherine's essay.
"What stuck is that she was dreaming, she could see a future and she was predicting it. She said, 'I had terrible things go on in life and my mother still believes in me.' After I read this, I thought, 'I'm going to send it to the White House' ... I figured, the worst thing that could happen is nothing."
Cynthia Hanson helped put the essay in a large manila envelope and addressed it with a Sharpie pen to make it stand out.
An entire summer passed before Cynthia Hanson discovered an envelope from Washington, D.C., sitting in the St. Helens office.
Inside was a generic thank you letter and what appears to be a signed picture of President Obama. Both items were presented to Katherine at a Longview School Board meeting.
The response thrilled Katherine. The Monticello Middle School sixth-grader likes Obama because "he understands being different."
A bigger surprise arrived at her home: A letter from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the White House address.
This time, the letter addressed her by name and went on to encourage her to "draw on the power of hope, determination, perseverance and faith to overcome adversity. I hope you find comfort in these principles, as I have.
"Many young people like you face difficult challenges, and I want you to know that you are not alone. Please know that I will keep you and your loved ones in my thoughts and prayers."
A White House spokesman said Tuesday he did not know how to confirm if the letters or picture were actually signed or dictated by the President. It appears the two letters were stamped with Obama's signature, but the picture includes a signature with subtle differences hinting that it could be handwritten.
Regardless, Katherine said he was "surprised and excited" to receive the letters from Obama's office. She wants to hang the picture of Obama in her bedroom.
"I'm going to keep them forever," she said. "My mom said to take good care of them because they're treasures."
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