"Are you Santa Claus?"

Curtis Jenkins has driven a school bus for his school district in Dallas, Texas, for seven years. This year he wanted to do something more at Christmas. Originally he thought of a gift exchange, but his wife remarked that some kids' parents might not be able to afford a gift. So he simply started saving money from his pay checks to buy gifts for all his 70 students at Lake Highlands Elementary School.

                                                                                                                 Photo by Merrill Hope
After asking each student what they wanted for Christmas, he waited until the last school day before winter break to load up his bus with wrapped gifts, and dole them out to the kids. One child remembered, "He even had a bicycle on the bus!" Jenkins recalls, "When I opened the bus door, one of the kids asked me, 'Are you Santa Claus?'" He admits he also received some financial contributions from a co-worker, and from a compassionate parent who was touched by his gesture.