Students Donate Gifts to Appalachian Mining Town

Students at the Chesapeake Academy organized hundreds of gifts for children in a small mining town in West Virginia.

Early Friday morning, rows and rows of wrapped gifts lined the entrance to Chesapeake Academy. These bags and presents were brought by students hoping to make the holidays a little brighter for residents of Warriormine, WVA, a small town of about 1,800 people in the southern end of the state.

The school has been donating gifts to the town for almost a dozen years, said Head of School Jay Scheurle. And each year, the kids are excited to do it again.

Each bag was decorated by a student, and filled with items they gathered from stores around the area. In addition, students and parents were also encouraged to donate a wrapped gift.

Sporting a Santa beard and gold spectacles on his nose, volunteer Don Smith will drive the truck to Warriormine this week, just before the cold weather shuts down the town's roads. Smith said he took over this donation effort from his mother, who passed away. 

"This is the 11th year. We just have some very generous families. The parents here understand the need, and want their children to understand the needs down there," Smith said.

Fifth graders helped load up a truck full of the items and sent Smith on his way. 

"They're kind of like our own version of Santa," a parent, Kim Hilliard, said of the kids.

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