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Santa, Students, State Police Team up in Hazleton Area

HAZLE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Santa made some special stops in Hazleton Area classrooms Friday morning, along with some members of the state police, and members o...

HAZLE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Santa made some special stops in Hazleton Area classrooms Friday morning, along with some members of the state police, and members of the school's National Honor Society.

They passed out gifts to life skills students.

"When you walk in the classroom and see their faces light up, and you know it's students helping other students, it just makes my heart warm and makes me want to keep doing this year after year," said Santa.

This has become a holiday tradition.

The state police helped get Santa here.

Trooper David Peters worked to start this program years ago.

"The National Honor Society when we met with them back in 2012, they were all over the program, they wanted to be part of it, they wanted to do it. I think there are 140 students in this district that these kids take care of," said Trooper David Peters.

The members of the Hazleton Area National Honor Society bought and wrapped 200 presents for special education students throughout the district.

"These are students of great character who enjoyed doing these projects even without even being asked. We ran out of gift tags and names to give to our students. They were each taking 2,3 tags that we couldn't do enough," said Jason Turri, advisor to the National Honor Society students.

The students said seeing these faces is the best gift of all.

"You never get tired of the feeling of giving back to the community and kids, kids around us, too," said student Ann Marie McGrogran.

"The holiday season is all about giving back, and once you see you're able to give back and make someone's day, it's just a great feeling," said student Natalie TIhansky.

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