The spirit of giving proves to be strong on Halloween, too

Pioneer High School Teacher Charity Graff and her Leadership Group students had organized a costume giveaway for children whose parents couldn't afford a costume.

For a month the students solicited donations.

But when the first of a two-day giveaway came on Monday, the class had only managed to secure 26 costumes, and they had a list of 46 children in need.

After outfitting 22 children on Monday, there were only bits and pieces of five costumes left.

The high from helping the children was dampened by the fear that, come Wednesday, they wouldn't have costumes to give the remaining children they'd promised them to.

"We did a lot of work on this. I did everything to get donations that I could think of," Graff said Monday.

However, after a story ran in Tuesday's Nevada Appeal, the community came out in force, said Graff.

"One man donated five costumes that his wife had made that are just beautiful," she said. "Revelations let our students come by and pick out 25 costumes and the mayor's wife (Liz Teixeira) brought us 20 costumes."

All day, Graff said, "random" people were dropping off costumes at the school on Park Street.

"What I'm hoping is that we'll have even more kids show up Wednesday that we didn't even know about," she said.

"I think we might have enough costumes for next year."

The giveaway is at the school at 225 Park St. from 3-5 p.m. If people still wish to donate, they can drop off costumes at the office before 3 p.m.

- Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.