When Grant Jeide sat down to write his letter to Santa this year, he had only one request. Grant, a first-grader at Parkside Elementary, simply asked that Santa skip over him this year. Instead of leaving presents for him, he asked St. Nick to send presents to America's soldiers.Grant was moved to write his letter when the Powell schools began their drive to donate gifts to Powell Troop Support, an effort the schools make every Christmas.

“I knew they were sending stuff to soldiers, and I wanted to write a Santa letter,” Grant said. “So that's what I asked for.”

Chris Jeide, Grant's mother, said Grant had made his request all on his own, and she and his dad, J.J. Jeide, only found out about it after he had written the letter.

“He had done it at school and came home and told us,” Chris Jeide said. “He was very serious about it. It almost made me cry, and almost made his teachers cry, too.”

When it came time to load the boxes and mail them last week, Bonny Rouse of Powell Troop Support invited Grant and his mother to help out, and Grant was there to fill the boxes with snacks and other gifts donated by his classmates and teachers.

Asked if he expected any presents at all, Grant said, “no,” but then paused.

“Only from my mom and dad,” he said.