Yes, Carter County there is a Santa
Published 5:01 pm Thursday, December 16, 2021
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Mariah Walker, right, was the true Santa of the day as she was able to get enough presents and gift cards donated to give to every Happy Valley Elementary, Middle, and High School student.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders It took a large group of elves to help Santa and Mariah Walker hand out gifts to the students Thursday at Happy Valley Elementary.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Mariah Walker is thrilled to be talking about Santa and the gifts he has brought to the students.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders This student was excited to walk into the gym and see Santa standing there.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders This elf shares excitement with a student who had just received a doll from Santa.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders These young man was all smiles after receiving his dinosaur lantern from Santa Thursday morning at Happy Valley Elementary.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Students eyes danced and twinkled when they saw the gifts that were under the tree for the students at Happy Valley Elementary.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders A student couldn't contain her excitement when she saw Santa and the gifts he had brought for the students.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Santa's elves stayed busy handing out hundreds of gifts to students at Happy Valley Elementary School.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Mariah Walker enjoys talking with the kids and helping them open their Christmas gifts.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders There were lots of smiles and dancing eyes as Santa presented gifts to each student at Happy Valley Elementary Thursday morning.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Happy Valley Elementary students have their hands full of goodies as they prepare to head back to class after a visit with Santa.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Happy Valley Elementary assistant principal Lisa Ensor (Left) and Principal Mandy Greer (right) join Santa for a photo Thursday morning.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders This first grader at Happy Valley Elementary looks over a new nerf gun he received from Santa.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Elf was on hand to help distribute presents to students at Happy Valley Elementary.
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
Happy Valley Elementary, Middle, and High School students were reminded Thursday of what many people may have forgotten: there is, indeed, a Santa.
Every student in the elementary school received books and wrapped presents while the middle and high school received gift cards ranging from $10 to $25 while Happy Valley Elementary also received a $3,500 donation to purchase more library books.
So who was the special Santa who made all this happen?
Her name is Mariah Walker and she not only provided each student with gifts but also supported another 86 children in the Rise Up program in Johnson City through her TikTok page.
“It was the grace of God I guess,” Walker said. “Long story short, I made a TikTok video and my first goal was to support the Rise Up kids. One of the larger TikToker’s dueted me and it kind of blew up. People started texting me saying who are we sponsoring next because we took care of all those kids.
“My Amazon driver, Donny, whose wife, Becky, works here was like ‘if you need someone else to sponsor there is a school’ so I called Becky and told her we were going to sponsor the school. I started adding stuff to the Amazon wish list and people started sending it. Within a couple of weeks, the wish list was completely done.”
Walker said space quickly filled with gifts for the students from all over. More than 700 gifts came for the school with an average of 200 boxes per day.
She and her husband organized the packages and stored them away and then took the gifts to a church to wrap each gift. Some of the gifts included Legos, Barbies, LCD writing boards, journals, gel pens, dinosaurs, and nerf guns which were distributed according to the child’s age.
Walker said nearly $30,000 of gifts were distributed, including the gift cards and books donated to the library.
“A smile on a child’s face is priceless,” said Walker. “Even being able to restore adults’ faith in humanity that there are people that are still kind and good means the world.”
Last year Walker said while she lived in California, she sponsored 10 foster kids out of her own money. She is hoping to get a quicker jump next year to be able to provide more gifts for students in Carter County.
Happy Valley Elementary Principal Mandy Greer put the day into perspective saying, “Christmas is love in action”.
“A lot of action and a lot of love is going on for these kids,” Greer said. “It’s just not this because the presents are a by-product of this and that’s amazing, but we have also had a Christmas musical this week; we had a Christmas reading night where parents came and joined us for the academic side of things; the band came and played down the hallway this week; and I would like to think that things like this happen because there is so much love for these children each and every day. Christmas is love in action.”
