This is the ninth story in a multi-part series examining the needs of local non-profit agencies during the holiday season.

NATCHEZ — When Santa Claus comes to town, he always makes a stop at Pleasant Acre Day School to see what Christmas wishes are on the school’s list each year.

This year, Director Mary Ann Foggo-Eidt said her Christmas wish is more like socks than the latest and greatest colorful toy blocks.

Foggo-Eidt hopes Santa — or at least his Miss-Lou helpers — will help her repair the school’s termite-riddled wall and replace it’s aging windows.

Termites have eaten away at the paint on one of the masonite walls in the classroom. The paint on the wall is cracked and peeling off in several places. Foggo-Eidt said she is not sure what the wall repair would cost the school.

“My heart really hasn’t been strong enough to get a price on what it would cost to fix it,” she said.

The classroom’s windows also need to be replaced, Foggo-Eidt said, because the windows do not provide adequate protection for the classroom on windy days.

“We desperately need new windows,” Foggo-Eidt said. “When the wind blows, it blows into the classroom as if the windows aren’t even there.”

Pleasant Acre is a day-treatment program for adult, trainable, mentally challenged students. The curriculum in place helps students acquire life skills and self-help skills through life enrichment programs.

The school operates on a shoestring budget, Foggo-Eidt said, and depends on donations to keep the school’s doors open and manage repairs on the school’s 52-year-old building.

The school also has several fundraising efforts throughout the year, including a bead recycling program in which people collect and donate Mardi Gras beads to the school to recycle and sell for parades and other events.

Sarah Cichirillo, known at the school as the queen of beads, worked diligently at a table in the school’s student activities room Friday sorting and counting gold, purple, green, pink and red beads that were sold for the Christmas parade Saturday.

“Red is my favorite,” Cichirillo said with a big smile.

The school also recycles aluminum cans and operates the Some-N-Special Shop at the school. The shop has a variety of items, including dishes, books, purses and seasonal decorations.

Foggo-Eidt said the community is very generous to the school, especially during the holidays. The school was able to repair a broken gate and heating unit last year with holiday donations, which she said overwhelmingly granted her holiday wish for the school.

Repairing the classroom wall and replacing the windows, Foggo-Eidt said, are the school’s immediate needs, but the school also has a need for a wheelchair lift for the school’s 15-passenger van.

Foggo-Eidt said she spent $300 to have a ramp welded onto the van, but it’s very difficult for the students with physical disabilities to walk up the ramp.

The van is used for the school’s various field trips around town.

“We go bowling, go eat out, the students really enjoy it,” Foggo-Eidt said. “One day, when Santa Claus really comes to town big time, maybe we can get a new van or a lift.”

Monetary donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 1362 (Natchez, Ms, 39121.)

Donations or aluminum cans to be recycled can be dropped off at the school’s 335 Liberty Road location.

The Some-N-Special Shop is open from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. each Friday.

For more information, contact Foggo-Eidt at 601-442-2264.