By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Families at Lincoln Elementary School in Hays were blessed with gifts from the community this year.
Catholic Disciples of Fort Hays State University donated $1,800 they raised toward buying gifts for needy families at Lincoln for Christmas.
Principal Kerri Lacy contacted Lincoln families and asked what their children wanted for Christmas. Lacy placed the gifts in a virtual Walmart shopping cart, and the FHSU took the printed list of gifts and purchased them for the students.
In addition, the FHSU students purchased wrapping paper and tags for the gifts, so the parents could wrap the presents.
"It was so cool. It was so awesome. It was so much fun to do," Lacy said.
She said she received many thankful emails and messages from the families who received the gifts.
"You changed our Christmas," Lacy said one message said. "You changed what we could do for our family."
Lacy said she hopes to attend a Mass soon and thank the parishioners for donating to the FHSU students' fundraiser.
In addition, donors also gave $2,100 toward the purchase of Dillons gift cards for families at Lincoln.
"I was able to help almost 80 percent of my families in some way this Christmas because of these two entities, which was so cool," Lacy said.
"I felt like Santa standing out there because I stand outside and great my students every morning. The ones that I couldn't get a hold of or see them, I ran their cards to their car in the morning the last day."