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Christmas Gift Hero
During the holiday season, many local charitable organizations make sure that underprivileged children will have a present to open on Christmas Day. But one generous woman takes it one step further by making sure the kids get exactly what they asked Santa for. Paula Pierce helps run the "Taking it to the Streets" ministry in St. Petersburg with her husband Brian. For the past several years she's organized a toy drive for hundreds of families that she picks personally. She contacts each family and gets each child's wish list, then makes sure to buy at least one gift on that list. She says she likes to makes the gifts personal so the kids learn to believe that someone really does care for them and that Christmas miracles can come true. This year, Pierce brought joy to more than 400 children thanks to her husband raising about $37,000 in donations. Along with the gifts, Pierce also brings a full Christmas dinner and boxes of food to each family. She calls herself "God's elf" and says the best reward is just seeing the smile of the children's' faces.
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