The numbers slowly climbed this year. Thirty-five. Then sixty-five. Then we broke 100.

By the time it was all said and done, I'd collected $1,240 — just $28 shy of last year.

I didn't expect it to work as well this time. We're in the middle of a pandemic. Job losses are at record numbers. People are struggling. People don't have extras.

And yet that's exactly why I'd put out the call again this year for friends to donate a few extra dollars to a pool of money to buy holiday gifts for teenagers whose parents could use just a little bit of help.

Teenagers have expensive needs. I've learned this all too well.

Phones are necessary in homes that don't have landlines. Gaming systems are recreation and socialization. Even their clothes come at a heftier price than those of their younger siblings.

It's all for good reason — by the time you've hit the double digits, you're able to take better care of things and growing at a slower rate so everything you use lasts just that much longer.

Add in technology's rapid changes, and what today's teenager dreams of seeing beneath the Christmas tree is a far cry from what teenager's wanted even a decade or two ago.

They're not greedy. They're kids living in an expensive age with expensive needs…needs like calling friends and connecting to school.

And now the pandemic has only heightened the need for it all, for kids to be able to talk to friends they cannot see, for kids to be able to connect to a school from home.

The pandemic has likewise heightened the hardship for parents to fill those needs and made it harder too for those with a little extra to fully fund those needs.

Buying a doll for someone else's child may be easy for some. Buying a tablet for another person's child remains hard for most.

This is the power of combining funds. Twenty-five plus 25 plus 25 quickly becomes 75, and we grow from there.

By the time friends and family were done donating this year, I had more than $1,200 to spend on expensive needs and wants for teenagers in our area.

Thanks to staff at the Sullivan West district, I had wish lists too (don't worry, no names were provided; anonymity protected).

And so I sat down on Black Friday morning, laptop settled on my knees and began shopping. I bought tablets. I bought sneakers. I bought video games. I bought what it was the kids wanted and the kids needed, and I did so because people were thoughtful and kind and willing to do a little something for someone else.

I have a teenager. I also know what it's like to stress about buying presents, to weigh out whether I can keep the lights on and the mortgage paid.

But this year, thanks to a crew of elves, I was able to play Santa Claus to a bunch of overgrown kids who deserve a little bit of sparkle beneath the Christmas tree.