In a season where children often spend hours daydreaming about what they want for Christmas, a group of Limestone County fourth-graders decided it is better to give than receive.

April Haney, a fourth-grade teacher at Johnson Elementary School, explained her students have a party each year and buy presents for each other. This year, however, the children were more interested in helping their neighbors to the north after seeing news reports about the wildfires that ravaged the Smoky Mountains.

“We watched a very short clip in class about some of the wildfires and some of them related it to what happened here in 2011 with the tornadoes,” Haney said. “I don’t know if they really remember that or if it’s because it’s been talked about, but they have that memory.”

Last weekend, Haney gave some thought to what her students could do to help the residents of Gatlinburg. On Monday, she put her idea to a vote — buy presents for each other or for those affected by the fires.

“They voted and they wanted to help; that’s what they wanted to do,” she said, adding that only three in her class voted to keep the presents for themselves. “They said, ‘We’ll get stuff from our moms and dads and Santa.’”

Haney and fellow fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Hodges also sent letters home to the students’ parents asking for their approval on the project. Haney said the parents have been very supportive.

As of Wednesday, Haney said four boxes of supplies had been collected. Items brought in include coats, gloves, baby supplies, first-aid supplies, and hygiene products like shampoo and toothpaste. The idea was so popular, teachers in other grade levels have also pitched in.

Monday is the last day the school will collect supplies. Haney said Scott Saulk of G&S Auto Sales in Ardmore, Tennessee, will take the supplies to Gatlinburg on Tuesday.

Haney isn’t surprised by the generosity displayed by the 46 fourth-graders in her and Hodges’ classes. Johnson is a “Leader in Me” school, which utilizes Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” The sixth habit is “synergy,” which emphasizes working with others to solve a problem.

“I’m just proud of them in general because it’s hard to give up a gift,” Haney said, adding that it’s possible the idea of giving could become an annual Christmas tradition. “It’s been a way for them to learn about goodwill and kindness.”

Tourists coming back

Visitors jammed the main roads and sidewalks in Gatlinburg as the tourism city reopened to the public Friday for the first time since wildfires killed 14 people.

While the main drag was left intact, the charred remains of homes, vehicles and businesses on side roads served as a reminder of the cleanup and repairs needed in the days ahead. Officials estimate 2,500 buildings were damaged by the wildfires that spread in high winds out of the Great Smoky Mountains on Nov. 28.

The hills around the resort area featured a steady chorus of chain saws. Fleets of utility vehicles and contractors’ trucks came and went. There was little need for security as many of the homes were so heavily burned there was nothing left to steal.

Tricia Jeter had run the Grand Prix Motel for less than a month when the fires spread onto the ridges around Gatlinburg. Her husband, Kurt, hosed down the roof to keep embers from lighting the building on fire.

“When that fire came across the top, the wind moving it down the mountain was such that when it hit the cabins they looked like you’d lit the head of a match,” Kurt Jeter said. “It would ignite and then it was gone, gutted.”

The Grand Prix avoided the fate of several nearby buildings that were heavily damaged or destroyed. Up the road, a sign advertising the Relaxation Properties stood in front of a burned out structure. All that remained of the Ski Mountain Chalet office were charred laundry machines.

The Jeters have been working quickly to make rooms available to people displaced by the fires.

“We have people scrambling to find a place to live, because the city’s back open so they need to get back to their jobs,” Tricia Jeter said. “If we had more rooms, we’d put more people here. But we’re full.”

On the winding roads around the city, undamaged homes stand next to buildings burned to their foundations. Fire at the Laurel Point Resort torched the indoor pool, covering the water with a thick layer of ashes and debris. An abandoned pickup truck sat burned in a 15-minute parking spot.

Also reopening Friday was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where prosecutors say two juveniles started the fires that later spread. They have been arrested.

The Smokies are the country’s most-visited national park, and Superintendent Cassius Cash said the days following the fires have been “the most challenging and emotional days our community has likely ever had to endure.”

Officials are trying to guard against side effects of the fires, including flash flooding and mudslides because of the loss of vegetation. U.S. Geological Survey technicians installed a rapid deployment gage to alert officials about unusual stream levels or debris flow.

“It’s to keep our finger on the pulse of the river to see if we have increased runoff rates that could impact the city downstream,” said National Park Service hydrologist Jim Hughes.

— Associated Press reporter Erik Schelzig contributed to this report.