CALIFORNIA COMPUTER STOLEN FROM PRE SCHOOL ContraCostaTimes.com 02/02/2007 Five-year-old's gift as big as his heart:

Generous student empties piggy bank to help replace stolen computer

HAYDEN CHAVARRIA, 5, holds his rocket ship piggy bank in San Jose on Tuesday. Hayden donated all of the money that was in it to his class at Primary Plus School to help replace a stolen computer.
By Leslie Griffy

MEDIANEWS STAFF

Burglars ripped off the lone computer from Hayden Chavarria's kindergarten class and almost broke a San Jose boy's heart.

'He was very sad at first,' said his mom, Jessica Dering."

But then 5-year-old Hayden came up with a plan. He would raid his piggy bank to get the seed money to replace the stolen Dell and his teacher's petty cash.

His gray, plastic, rocket-shaped bank was full of "pennies and nickels and dimes and quarters," said the brown-haired boy with big glasses. "I'd been saving for a long time."

Hayden had dreamed of buying a new game for his Nintendo DS Lite as he squirreled away spare change over time, mostly from his folks.

But on Monday night, he counted up the $33 in change -- that took a long time too, Hayden said -- and gave it to his principal at Primary Plus, the private school he attends on Amber Drive in San Jose.

Hayden's plan is simple: With one act of kindness he hopes to inspire others -- namely his classmates and friends -- to hand over their precious coins, too, and replace the computer stolen over the weekend.

"He's been calling it a piggy-bank drive," Dering said with a laugh.

Although school officials refused to comment on the theft or on Hayden's gift, one thing is clear: This is how Hayden operates.

When he gave his principal the money, Hayden said, he didn't feel sad, as he did when the computer was stolen. "It felt good."

Dering said Hayden learned about helping others from the times when others have helped him. Hayden is legally blind. And since he was 10 months old, he's undergone three surgeries to improve his vision.

The sight in both of his eyes is poor, his mother said, but that is compounded by severe esotropia, which means his brain won't allow him to see clearly out of both eyes at once.

Dering said that Hayden has learned what it means to be helped by others throughout his young life -- from the staff at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital who made him feel better during his visits and went door-to-door to raise money for his grandfather, who has colon cancer.

"He sees people helping the children at the hospital, helping him," Dering said. "It's made his heart big. He wants to touch the world."

Reach Leslie Griffy of the San Jose Mercury News at lgriffy@mercurynews.com