Shaler Area High School students in the Helping Hands Group are part of a local Christmas miracle.

The 9th to 12th-graders held a schoolwide donation drive to collect and fill stockings with personal care items for those in need. When looking for an organization to benefit from the donation, the Helping Hands Group contacted Light of Life Ministries, on the North Side.

The donation was exactly what Steve Rorison, outreach coordinator at Light of Life, had hoped to find volunteers willing to do for the homeless in Pittsburgh.

“They are putting together exactly what we need,” Rorison said. “I’m calling it my ‘Christmas miracle.’”

Shaler Area’s Helping Hands Group members filled 50 stockings with items such as gloves, socks, soap and toothbrushes donated by the high school student body. The stockings will be distributed by Light of Life volunteers to men and women in the homeless camps around the city along with a hot Christmas meal on Dec. 23.