The true spirit of giving.

Like many others, Nathan Burditt, a senior at Memorial High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, got swept up in the shopping frenzy last November. He waited 34 hours outside a Target store in suburban Hooksett to be among the first to buy a Sony PlayStation 3 electronic game machine. But his persistence paid off, it seemed, as he actually was able to purchase two of the $600 PlayStations.

After giving one of the devices to his mother to pay off a debt, Nathan returned to school on the Monday after his shopping spree and told his civics and history teacher, Christine Monahan, about his success. When his teacher learned that he had acquired two PlayStation 3s, she jokingly suggested that he donate one to a fundraising raffle she was organizing to benefit a local family named Hudon. The Hudons had two teenagers with serious illnesses: 15-year-old Stephanie was recovering from bone cancer in her right arm, and her 18-year-old brother Kevin had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"I was just floored," Monahan told the Manchester Union Leader about her reaction when she learned about the Hudons' misfortunes. "I couldn't believe this family had to go through this again. These are the nicest kids. She and her brother--you wouldn't even want them to have a bad day, let alone cancer."

Though the challenge had been thrown out in jest, Nathan told his teacher he would consider it. Not long afterwards Monahan introduced him to Stephanie.

"I didn't say anything about her situation," said the teacher. "I just let him know who she was. He came back two classes later and said, 'You can have it.'"

Nathan's PlayStation will be added to many other articles donated to the raffle to benefit the Hudon family.

The young man's generosity was very likely prompted by his own brush with serious illness. "I've been through tough times," he told the Union Leader. "I've seen what cancer can do to families." His teacher told the newspaper that Nathan had heart surgery last summer, observing: "I think he had one of those moments where he questioned what's important in life."

Another generous individual in this story is Memorial junior Samantha Allard, who works at a store called Candy Kingdom. Samantha met Stephanie when the girl came in as a customer. Learning about her illness, Samantha volunteered to take charge of publicity for the fundraiser and to help obtain prizes to raffle off.