Late Thursday morning, Eyewitness News, Channel 8/Fox 11 visited Clay County High School to recognize the tremendous support from many of their students for the children who are in need this Christmas season. School secretary, Pam Tanner continued this tradition this year after those who used to do it retired last year. There were a total of 260 angels that needed to be adopted, all within Clay County, and 86 angels were adopted by the students at Clay County High School alone.
The angels came from the special education class at the high school, and had the information of each child written on them so that students knew the child’s gender, age, sizes, etc. The office helpers, helped Mrs. Tanner place the angels on the window of the main office so the all the students could see how many angels were left. As the angels were adopted, they received a halo with the student’s name and who had adopted that specific angel. As soon as the angels went up, students flocked in to adopt an angel to buy for.
One church in the community bought 5 bicycles to donate. Five students out of the many who adopted angels attended the interview with Eyewitness news. Morgan Bragg, Senior; Molly Bragg Junior; Hali Simmons, Seniors; Daniel Canter, senior; and Felicia Neff, Senior. Each of these students adopted at-least one child to buy for this Christmas. Molly Bragg said “I wanted to give kids an opportunity to have a good Christmas.” Morgan and Molly are siblings and come from a family of seven children so they know how it is to not always get what you want. Daniel Canter said he wanted to “pay it forward.” When Daniel was a child, he was on the receiving end and he knew how it felt to know how to not have much and how excited he got to have presents to open on Christmas morning. Daniel had a 4year old that he bought for and the child specified that they loved Avengers stuff, so Daniel said he got all kinds of Avengers toys and things for this child.
The money that was used to provide these gifts for the angels were mostly provided for by the students themselves, by having a job or a summer job and they used money they had saved. Their parents assisted, but the generosity these students had to provide presents for these children in need from their own money is a real heart-warming feeling. The students said that this year was the most successful they have seen yet. If all of the gifts that were donated for the angels were put into the main office at the high school, there simply wouldn’t have been enough room. The generosity of the community and the students at Clay County High School was amazing! Thank you all for your support and Merry Christmas to all!
