Community Cares: Santa makes Christmas wishes come true at Foundation for Blind Children

PHOENIX - There was a lot of excitement at the Foundation for Blind Children, with Santa making Christmas wishes come true and bringing some very special gifts for the children.

"At the Foundation for Blind Children, we serve students with a wide range of needs and part of what we do is help them achieve their maximum level of independence, so whether that be some vision, low vision or complete blindness, we help them develop the skills and that's why you seem some kids have glasses, some people, some of the kids have no vision -- whatever they have, we teach them how to use it," said a spokesman with the foundation.

Part of that very important lesson includes enjoying and playing with toys made just for these kids.

"A lot of it has to do with the input from the teachers and the teachers and out therapists know the children best and are able to help guide our angel tree shoppers in finding a present that works for each kid," the spokesman said.

The angel tree shoppers who are Santa's elves this year and for decades past are employees at Swift Aviation.

"It's a partnership that we value. Each fall, Swift Transportation will ask us for a wish list, so to speak, and each one of the teachers will send them a toy that they think will be appropriate that a child would like and every single year sure enough, right around mid-December, a trailer will pull up and we unload gifts for all the kids," the spokesman said.

Santa delivers the gifts just as happy as the children and their families are for such generosity.

"It's one of my favorite days of the year, for sure. I do get to walk around in the big red suit and be the rock star and without fail every year, you walk in and give the 'ho, ho, ho' and I get rewarded with that," the spokesman said. "It's as much [fun] for me as it is for those kids."