'Giving Tree' lights up kids' faces

TAMPA - He's hard to miss— red suit, white beard and he can quickly light up any room full of children.

Santa visited every child at the Easter Seals Child Development Center Friday morning delivering toys, smiles and lots of laughs.

"We have children of all abilities. We have typically developing children and a lot of children with disabilities and special needs," said Tracy Clouser, VP of Marketing at Easter Seals in Tampa.

For weeks FOX 13 viewers and Applebee's customers have been granting wishes, dropping off unopened toys to Bay Area Applebee's. This morning those gifts were given out.

"It's wonderful. It's heartwarming. It's so meaningful to the kids and they really, really appreciate it and the parents do too," Clouser said.

Donations were drastically low earlier this season, but the community stepped in at the last minute - granting every child's wish.

"I just couldn't stand to have a name on the tree that was not pulled off and a child that didn't have any gifts," Stephen Schaffrath said.

Stephen, who is kindly known as Santa Steve, saw a segment on FOX 13 and donated enough toys for nearly 60 children.

"It's great to see the kids get the gifts. It really is," Schaffrath said. "It just makes it all that more rewarding"

Santa is just delivering one toy to each child today. The rest of the toys will be given to parents to be opened on Christmas Day.

"It makes all the difference in the world to these kids because they may not have received anything for the holidays," said Pamela Jones with Applebee's.

But not only did these children get exactly what they asked for, whether that be a toy doll or a bike. They got it from the man himself— Santa Claus.