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Students deliver more than 1,000 gifts to Hidden Valley Elementary

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Students from Olympic High School were able to meet their goal and deliver more than 1,000 Christmas gifts to every child at Hidden Valley Elementary school Friday morning.

It's the eighth year the students have pulled off Operation Santa Claus -- a project that allows the high school students to look at the issues of homelessness and poverty in Charlotte and do their part to make a difference.

Hidden Valley has been identified as one of the poorest elementary schools in the state, and Olympic English teacher Jennie Morris said the effort makes the children happy, and impacts her students too.

"It's amazing to see them walk around -- even the big teenage boys start to tear up and cry and say, 'Ahh, that's so sweet,'" Morris said.

The students at Olympic managed to raise about $5,000 this year to help bring Christmas cheer to the children in Hidden Valley.