By Susan Bosch

Phoenix Correspondent

The Christmas wishes of 11 Native Alaskan students were simple: pencils, paper, shoes, sweaters, jeans and simple toys.

Those elementary students will get exactly what they want and more this year, thanks to the senior class at Fort Gibson High School who adopted them earlier this year as their class project.

A 2007 Northeastern State University graduate and Fort Gibson native, Mallory Cooper, contacted the school in August, telling of the students’ needs and prompting the creation of “Change a Child’s Life,”

Project organizer Andrea Barcellos, 17, and a senior, made the students scarves, she said, adding the things they wanted were things children here take for granted.

“They wanted little things,” she said.

Four girls and seven boys — four sets of siblings in all — comprise Cooper’s class, Barcellos and Cooper said.

Besides the basics they requested, the high schoolers also sent a Bratz doll and a truck to the kids, Barcellos said.

These gifts were appreciated, as even getting a new box of crayons is a “big deal” to her students, Cooper said. In the elementary years, children color a lot, so getting fresh crayons is both useful and fun.

Katie Smith, another 17-year-old senior, feels for the children.

“It’s just so far from everything,” she said.

Tok, a town 47 miles from Mentasta Lake, is considered the “big town,” but it is smaller than Fort Gibson, Cooper said.

Students frequently travel to and from school on snowmobiles, with warm, heavy coats protecting them from the often negative-digit temperatures, Cooper said. However, many lack the heavy-duty gloves needed to protect their hands, just one more wish she would like to see granted.