| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| 'My daddy died this year in Iraq' |
| 2007-12-29 |
| GARLAND, Texas - An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: "My daddy died this year in Iraq." While gripping, it was not true — and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mom acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie. The sponsor of the contest was Club Libby Lu, a Chicago-based store that sells clothes, accessories and games intended for young girls. The saga began Friday with company officials surprising the girl at a Club Libby Lu at a mall in suburban Garland, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas. The girl won a makeover that included a blonde Hannah Montana wig, as well as the grand prize: airfare for four to Albany, N.Y., and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on Jan. 9. The mother had told company officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said. "We did the essay and that's what we did to win," Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. "We did whatever we could do to win." She had identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. Caulfield said the mother has admitted to the deception. "We regret that the original intent of the contest, which was to make a little girl's holiday extra special, has not been realized in the way we anticipated," said Mary Drolet, the CEO of Club Libby Lu. Drolet said the company is reviewing the matter, and is considering taking away the girl's tickets. Here's to that "Texas Cheerleader Mother of the Year" mom. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 Poor little girl did as her mother told her. Or at least, put her name to it. I'd give even odds that the mother wrote it, too. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-12-29 17:39 |
| #7 Cheerleader mom shooting. Poignant esay forging. Dang, they're raising up some tough little girls there in Texas. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-12-29 17:01 |
| #6 heh. Yup. A bright future working as a journalist for the MSM awaits her. |
| Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 2007-12-29 15:14 |
| #5 Dingy Harry was unavailable for comment. |
| Posted by: doc 2007-12-29 14:03 |
| #4 "We did whatever we could do to win." |
| Posted by: Woozle Uneath8763 2007-12-29 13:23 |
| #3 Drolet said the company is reviewing the matter, and is considering taking away the girl's tickets. Considering? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-12-29 10:34 |
| #2 "he died trying to save a puppy from being run over by a Bradley, driven by a maniacal Private, Scott Thomas Beauchamp. You could look it up in The New Republic" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-12-29 10:07 |
| #1 un-freak'n believable. |
| Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 2007-12-29 09:25 |