A group of jolly children were seen shopping the aisles at the Southridge Wal-Mart this past week. This in itself is not unusual except that there were 90 of them, all from the same school, and all shopping with money donated to them by a local church.

In its second year, the annual Christmas shopping trip was made possible to every student at Nellis Elementary School through donations of time and money from local community members, faculty, staff, and parents.

Ashford Church of God (Holiness) generously gave each student $20 to shop for a Christmas present and $5 to spend toward lunch.

“This is a benefit of being a small school in an isolated area,” Nelson said, sharing that the local community was active in the lives and education of the children at Nellis Elementary School.

“Last year, I was really nervous, but this year we know what to expect and I’m encouraged after the feedback from former students who participated last year,” Nelson told the Coal Valley News.

With a student-to-supervisor ratio of 3:1, and with all students and adults wearing bright red shirts, the children remained well-supervised and organized.

“It has been a pleasant experience and it just warms my heart to see the children’s faces,” an unidentified Wal-Mart cashier said as she rang in the children’s items.

According to Nelson, the children were encouraged to buy themselves a present, but had noticed a few children choosing items to give their family members.

With 30 brave volunteers teaching the children about making decisions and adding tax to an item’s purchase price. Despite the obvious fun that such a field trip holds, the school children were not able to escape at least a few math lessons during the day.

These lessons transferred to brief instructions in etiquette as the Nellis Elementary School children and adult volunteers stopped for their afternoon lunch.

“It was important that we go to a sit-down restaurant,” Nelson said, standing in the dining area of the Texas Steakhouse. “For some of our students, this is the first experience they will have at a sit-down restaurant. We want to teach them about the proper way to conduct themselves and table manners.”

Each student was responsible for ordering their own meal off of the menu provided to them, an important component of the day’s activity, according to Nelson.

“No one is going to read the menu for them and order for them,” Nelson said of the older grade level children.

Chase, a 5-year-old Pre-K student in Mrs. Cathy Loggins’ classroom, said that the best part of the day was getting to shop at Wal-Mart. “I got Army Men,” the dimple-faced young boy said.

“The kids have been practicing their manners all week at the school, looking forward to this,” School Cook Pam Halstead said, as she and a few other volunteers took a moment to rest at Texas Steakhouse.

Everyone at her table was in agreement that projects such as the outing to Wal-Mart were wonderful activities for their children and was a direct result of having a principal who put the kids first.