Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

QUINCY, ILL. -- Every year, kids get excited for Christmas.

For the past four years, some Quincy kids have gotten excited about Christmas shopping.

Students in the Accelerated Program Baldwin South have once again skipped gift exchanges for fellow students and teachers and decided to donate to the greater good.

They collect money starting at the first of December, and then toward the end of the semester, go spend that money on other people.

KHQA tagged along as 24 tags were plucked off the Salvation Army's Angel Tree Friday morning.

Here is your Facebook Story of the Day.

Today is not about you, it's about someone else. That was the underlying theme for this shopping trip. Imagine how hard it must be to be nine, ten, eleven, or 12 years old and told to go spend $110 on toys and games and have it be for someone else. After talking to some of the kids, it's not as hard as it sounds.

Doniven Hicks says, "Sometimes I get ideas for myself, but mostly I want to stay focused."

Focused on the job at hand. And what a tough job. In total, the kids raised $25 hundred dollars this year to spend on the Angel Tree. When the program started four years ago, students went to the store with $400 in hand. The kids are divided up into groups, and as a group, they get $108 to spend. Michele Gnuse is a sixth grade teacher who helps organize the program. She says kids get so much out of a day like this.

Michele Gnuse says, "First and foremost to pay it forward. Realizing that as a community, we need to come together and realize there are situations where people need help. There's also a lot of academics going on here. As far as collecting the money and counting the money and budgeting and deciding what items they would like to purchase for the boy or girl."

Doniven Hicks says, "Movies, sports stuff, handheld games, cranes, cars, transformers, and I think that's it."

Doniven Hicks didn't have any worries he'd be able to snag all of that with is $108 dollars. And these girls did great too. They got change back. That change, went into the Salvation Army kettle.

Sophie Stephens says, "It's such a blessing to be able to come out and help people in the community that may not be able to get presents otherwise and knowing they are getting presents, it makes us feel really good inside. If it was me that wasn't getting presents, I know I'd be sad. Knowing we can give people presents and make them happy on Christmas morning, it just makes us feel really happy that we can do that for other people.

Doniven Hicks says, "If you want to, go and pick off an angel and try your best to find what you can give them."

There are still some Angel Tree tags left.

Walmart also gets in on the action.

After the kids are done shopping, they are treated to juice and cookies.