No shortage of goodwill to less fortunate
STOCKTON - The city can be a harsh place to live, with joblessness, crime and other ills that many Stocktonians live with on a daily basis. But on Christmas Day, it was easy to find the giving spirit that Stocktonians are known for.
Graschelle Hipolito, 13, a student at Christa McAuliffe Middle School, and her mom, Victoria Hipolito, took time out of their Christmas afternoon to travel the streets bringing food to the homeless.
"This is just something we've wanted to do. This is our first year," Victoria Hipolito said, dropping off two brown bags and some Pepsis to a couple in front of the downtown library before driving off to their next stop.
The grateful couple, Morton Kackley, 48, and Sandra Fox, 50, have been living in Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza between City Hall and the Cesar Chavez Central Library since July.
On Christmas Eve, they set their tent up close to a tree.
One son, Michael, became the Stockton bureau chief for Channel 10 before falling under the spell of People's Temple leader Jim Jones in San Francisco in the late 1970s. He gave the cultist $10000 of his savings and followed Jones to the infamous