By Katie Hill, Reporter

Children all over the Fox Valley area are having a merrier Christmas, thanks to Student Council members who worked hard to make children smile.

This week, Student Council finished a toy drive that collected around 300-400 toys that benefitted Toys for Tots, a military charity that helps area families, Student Council sponsor Javier Martinez said.

Senior Kelsey Gould, the Executive Board director, said that on average, each child receives two toys.

“The purpose of helping out with toy drives is to not think about ourselves for a little bit,” Gould said. “I’ve always been impressed with the amount of toys donated.”

As an incentive, Student Council buys pizza for the third block class that collects the most toys. The winning class will be announced this week.

“The best part about helping out with toy drives is knowing that one more kid could have a happy Christmas and just making another kid smile,” Gould said.

Martinez said that the Fire Science classes do a tremendous job helping Student Council deliver the toys and a large amount of the toys come from them.

Fire Science students have been helping out with the toy drives for the past four years and are planning to surpass the record for last year, 165 toys, Fire Science teacher Gary Baum said.

“We like to help out with the toy drives because we like to help Mr. Martinez and because it’s the right thing to do.  There’s nothing worse than a kid not getting a toy for Christmas,” Baum said.