From a dad`s heart: `Thank you`

He stood there, paralyzed by hope. A dad long estranged from his family because of incarceration stood there gazing at what seemed a sea of Christmas presents - for his children. For his wife. Tears streamed down his face. This was the first time in a long time that he was going to come through. \"Just thank them,\" he said. He didn`t know it, but he was thanking Hawken students, families and faculty and staff members for giving him a glimpse of what could be. Of being a dad again. In December, the Hawken community donated Christmas presents for 40-area families in conjunction with the school`s partnership with the Salvation Army. Hawken`s Community Service Director Nadja Deighan recently brought in Major Beth Muhs, a Salvation Army representative, to talk with Upper School students about the impact of their giving. Major Muhs knows firsthand. She was there consoling that father, who was overcome with emotion. \"You`ve done more than just give Christmas gifts,\" said Major Muhs in a recent Upper School meeting with students. \"You have opened up doors for communication for families to try to see if they could reunite again or even just to bring a dad back into the life of his family.\" Muhs, along with her husband, for 20 years have run the Salvation Army`s Adult Rehabilitation Center, a nine-month transitional program for 150 recovering addict and alcoholic dads and husbands. As the men learn how to be parents and spouses again, Christmas comes along to encourage them to never look back on the life they once lived. While the Hawken community donated the gifts, the men`s families don`t know that. To them, it`s dad being dad again. Muhs said a man, on brink of graduating from the program, stood up recently during a meeting. He`d been through the counseling and the vocational training, but he knew for a certainty that one thing was going to stay with him forever. \"I`ll never forget Christmas,\" he said.