BELLE — Three Belle businesses have partnered with the Maries County R-2 Schools during the holiday season to organize Angel Tree adoptions for local families in need. Items were dropped off at the schools on Tuesday morning 21 families at Belle High School, 18 families at Bland Middle School, and 49 families at Belle Elementary School.

Bob’s Frozen Custard owner Seth Klein said the project between his business, Corina Jacquin at Heavenly Homemade and Gabbie Scott at Ruth&Co has been in the works for a while.

“We’ve been working on this for over a year to get this situated,” Klein said on Monday. “Corina and I both came up on it, but a friend of mine who owns a catering business does an Angel Tree at their restaurant. We wanted to do something like that here, just to help the kids that need it.”

The project started out simple this year without spending requirements.

“For each kid we were given a favorite color, shoe size, clothing size, male or female and that’s what we ran with,” Klein said. “Some gave $100 per kid, some gave less.”

Some people gave a dollar amount per child for the store owners to purchase items, but most shopped for the students or families themselves.

“I did take a couple of donations and did the shopping, but we left it up to people who adopted the Angel to do the shopping themselves,” Klein said.

The identity of the students and families is 100 percent anonymous.

“We left it up to the school and administrators and teachers to give us a list of what kids may need help with this Christmas,” Klein continued.

Once numbers were received, the partnering store owners shared the information and Belle responded generously.

“Corina and I shared and 49 elementary kids were taken care of by one anonymous donor,” Klein said. “They did the shopping for those kiddos.”

The bulk of donations came from individual community members, though some businesses adopted students and their families.

“We appreciate everybody who helped and are thrilled how much the community has stepped up and helped with this project,” Klein said. “We look forward to doing it again, helping more kids and families that need it.”

Trees were located at all three business locations for people to give what they could if they wanted to participate.

“We are going to do it next year, definitely, and probably some other projects along the way to help other kids programs as well,” Klein said. “Possibly the Backpack Buddies will be next. Something in the spring for summer months when kids need it most.”