Santa gets carloads of help from students

Santa got carloads of help from the 110 students at Deer Park School this season.

To be specific, a very large car stuffed full of new and used clothing for less-fortunate children in the Flathead - filled twice.

"I was crying when I drove my car away," said the secret Santa, who asked to remain anonymous.

"It really touched me. This little country school gave more than I have ever seen anywhere. They were giving out of their hearts. They don't know who they were giving to, they just gave to folks."

The principal of the school south of Columbia Falls on Middle Road was pretty impressed with her students, too.

Kim Anderson, in her first year as Deer Park principal, had been in touch with a community member who works with troubled children and families in the valley. It became clear that a deep need for the basics of life is "so prevalent everywhere," Anderson said, so she cooked up the idea for a schoolwide clothing drive.

The worker told her she could use everything the school could give. Anderson put out the word, set up a space under the Christmas tree in her office and watched donations overtake the tiny office space.

"I had parents bringing in boxes of clothes, things the kids outgrew, clothes with tags still on them," she said.

The entire first-grade class walked across the school yard from their classroom to the principal's office with armloads of clothes.

Every day, students throughout the K-8 school brought in more and more.

When she had asked students to bring in clothes that no longer fit but are in good shape, Anderson "had expected maybe enough for 10 kids."

What she got were generous portions for probably 30 families, with children in each family from infant through high school age who are getting clothing for winter through summer.

"Sometimes they only have one pair of pants, one shirt," the secret worker said. "Sometimes they have boots but they are their mom's and they're a 14-year-old boy."

Both adults were taken aback at the children's attitude of generosity.

"There was not one piece of junk clothing," Anderson said. "It was all nice stuff. All of them were things that every kid would want.

"It's amazing how giving the kids were," she added. "And to see how proud they were of themselves … They'd say, 'This is my favorite shirt,' or 'I love this coat, but it doesn't fit me any more.'"

When the Santa picked up the donations last Thursday, plans were to start delivering them that night to fulfill a promise to find homes for everything Deer Park could donate.

"The presents will just appear on their doorstep, and they won't know why or where they're from," the worker said.

Anderson was particularly pleased with the departure from commercialism at Christmas time.

"They understand all about giving," she said of her students. "You don't have to go out and buy in order to give. You can give out of what you have."

The worker sees this act of generosity as a microcosm of the Flathead Valley.

"Our community has gotten big, but the one thing we still hang on to is we still care about one another," the secret Santa said. "And we still have that sense that we care about our brothers and we care about our sisters and we care about our families.

"Some of those kids at Deer Park aren't the wealthiest themselves, and they bring in their T-shirts. What a lesson for the kids."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com