Your view: Taking from children

I read your editorial last night regarding the person or persons who are stealing cans from the YMCA's trailer. I'm sorry I had not reported the cans that have been stolen from the trailer at Inside Lane. I think it would have been good to have had that mentioned also so people who are daily passing that trailer could help observe any suspicious activity and report it. We collect enough cans to have a load every 4 to 5 weeks when no one is stealing them and the last full load of cans was worth $740. We have not had a full load since November. In fact, since November, we have only received $340 from this fund raiser.

This endeavor was started in January 2000. Approximately $20,000 has been given to St. Jude's from this effort. There are two plaques in the hospital noting the Sikeston area's contribution. I don't need to tell you what a wonderful place St. Jude is and the great work they have done. Many cancers are now treatable and curable because of the research done at St. Jude. There are many people in Sikeston and Southeast Missouri who are alive today because of this facility and the work they do.

As you said, in the grand scheme of things, these crimes are small. But in a moral sense, they are not small at all. The person who is stooping to stealing from these trailers is stealing from terminally ill children and could be depriving them of the necessary funds that would help to find a cure for a disease that could touch someone they love. They need to stop and rethink what they are doing---they may think this crime is insignificant. But when you take from a child the means to have a better life as the YMCA gives or the funds for the research done at St. Jude's, this crime becomes obscene.

Nothing would please me more than to catch the one who is stealing these cans. They will be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.

Sincerely,

Della Hubbard