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LITTLE HELPERS
Photo
Heike Kaurschill, a Struthers Elementary School third-grader, waits for Santa in her pajamas. All of the school’s 700 students dressed in pajamas Thursday. When Santa arrived at the back door of the auditorium, he made his entrance to deafening cheers and enthusiastic choruses of “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
By jeanne starmack
struthers
The kids at Struthers Elementary School were very good this year — yet Santa Claus did not bring them any presents.
They gathered at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the auditorium to wait for him, singing their little hearts out.
Onstage, the Struthers High School Starlight Show Choir led them in Christmas carols for a half-hour until Santa’s arrival — city firefighters were nice enough to bring him to the school in a firetruck so he didn’t have to worry about where to park his sleigh, said school Principal Maggie Kowach.
Still, he brought no presents.
Those kids even came to school in their pajamas and slippers, trying to look as cute as they could. Kowach herself was sporting a pair of red PJs with a paw-print pattern in honor of the Struthers Wildcats.
When Santa arrived at the back door of the auditorium, he made his entrance to deafening cheers and enthusiastic choruses of “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
He was the guest of honor at a special reception given by 700 of his most adoring fans. But he didn’t bring them a thing.
Instead, it was Santa who got the presents — toys and food the kids had collected so he could make sure this Christmas is a merry one for families who can’t afford a nice dinner or gifts for under the tree.
Yes, the kids “did a very good thing this year,” Kowach noted.
Four fourth-graders went onstage to tell Santa why.
“Santa, you are our role model, and you have helped us understand that giving is better than receiving,” said Natalie Cagno. “So Santa, we decided to turn the tables on you!”
“Instead of you giving to us, we want to give you the gifts we brought in,” said Johnathan Morris. “We want you to give them to those who do not have as much as we have.”
“Now we know how exciting it must be for you to watch the elves fill your sleigh with good things for us,” said Tori Barone.
“Thank you for helping us to learn about the true meaning of Christmas,” said Samuel Braxton.
The Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley and a Struthers-based group called Neighbors Helping Neighbors are the beneficiaries of the kids’ generosity, Kowach said. The Rescue Mission will get the toys and half the food. Neighbors Helping Neighbors will get half the food to make holiday gift baskets, she said.
“Thank you very much,” Santa said. “Wow! I might need two sleds, and I might have to recruit more reindeer.”
The kids weren’t going home empty-handed either, as it turned out. The Struthers PTA bought and personalized tree ornaments with the names of each child in the school, Kowach said.
And Santa wasn’t about to ignore his young fans, who were still waving and trying to get his attention as he left the auditorium. He planned to be around for the rest of the day so they could talk with him about their own Christmas wishes.