Haile Middle students donate to Toys for Tots

Each holiday season, Carlos E. Haile Middle School staff members seek ways to get students in the giving spirit.

Throughout November, the school's band students collected items to donate to Toys for Tots, which gives toys to children in need.

Dec. 2, the students turned over the toys they gathered over the last three weeks, in exchange for sitting, posing in and inspecting nine Corvettes, brought in by the Gulf Coast Corvette Club.

"It makes me sad to think of kids not having anything to open on Christmas," sixth-grader Carlie Phelps said. "What we did helps make other kids happy, and that makes me happy."

Although most of the students didn't know how to open the doors to the hot rods, they didn't mind "getting stuck" in them and taking selfies with their friends.