Phillips Ave. students get visit from Santa and leave with a haul

Kids dragged bags of gifts, many bigger than their new owners, out of the Phillips Avenue Elementary School cafetorium Wednesday during a special program brought to the school by one of its teachers and an out-of-town charitable organization.

Jocelyn’s Operation Holiday Spirit was founded in 2006 by Joe Raab. This is its second year at Phillips, where students sang holiday songs and met Santa before throwing large sacks filled with clothing items and other donated gifts over their shoulders and making off, grinning.

Dominick the Christmas Donkey made an appearance, in the form of school custodian Charles Zukowski in a grey jumpsuit and odd-looking donkey mask prancing around among the laughing children. Principal Debra Rodgers was so struck by the spectacle that she doubled over in laughter and lost her place in the program.

“What are we doing now?” she said through chuckles.

Rodgers said teacher Gene Siller met Raab through a personal relationship and the two discussed the needs of students at Phillips. They met with Rodgers, and Raab’s organization agreed to bring its program to the school.

The donations are made by various Long Island businesses.

“They wrote a letter to Santa or their special elf, whatever religion they celebrate, and on that letter they talked about their needs and their wants. And from their we try and guide them to keep it within reason,” Rodgers said.

Many of the gift bags contained items like coats, hats and gloves.

Siller, who flitted around the room in an elf costume orchestrating the event, gave credit to everyone else involved in the program. She said she enjoyed seeing the reactions of students as they entered the room and saw the large red bags piled around its perimeter.

“To me, the best was when the kindergarteners walked in and they were like – the ‘Wow’ factor. That, to me, was the greatest,” she said.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Micah Danney

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