Santa's little helper - Short Stuff

Girls' Life, Dec, 2002

'T is the season for giving.... When Ashley Calcote, 8, was hospitalized for surgery around Christmas time two years ago, she worried that Santa Claus wouldn't be able to find the other kids in the hospital. So she decided to play Santa. No, she didn't dress up in a big red suit and white beard.

She saved up her $2.50-a-week allowance and, last year, handed out 100 toys, books and other goodies to kids at a shelter near her home in Mississippi. "I bought Barbie dolls, action figures, journals and pens," Ashley says. "It helps me feel better for other children so they can have stuff to play with." Ashley plans to keep up her holiday tradition, this year doubling her donations to 200 gifts for charity. Now that's what we call a very unselfish, elfish act of kindness!