The gymnasium at Canyon Lake Elementary School in Rapid City was as loud as a rock concert Friday afternoon.

Kids were screaming. Kids were jumping. Kids were clapping.

Santa had entered the building.

For the 247 students at Canyon Lake, the last day of school before winter break wasn't to be missed. Thanks to the generosity of Linda and Don Rydstrom, Santa was there with a toy and a hug for every student.

"I just want these kids to believe there are miracles out there," Linda Rydstrom said. "You don't have to be wearing a red suit to be Santa. There are a lot of Santas out there."

Linda Rydstrom was a Canyon Lake student herself in the early 1960s, and the Rapid City couple has been donating about 150 Christmas gifts a year to the Club for Boys and Youth & Family Services for years.

But after hearing about the level of poverty among students at her alma mater, Linda Rydstromdecided she wanted to do more. The Rydstroms own Westjet Air Center, a fixed base operator at Rapid City Regional Airport.

"I worried that there will be kids that don't get a Christmas present," she said. "I think it's going to be a tough Christmas. It's going down to paying rent or buying presents."

Principal Jackie Talley said about two-thirds of the students come from families whose incomes qualify them for free or reduced-price lunches.

"For some of our kids, this is the only Christmas they will have," Talley said.

The Rydstroms helped play a role in that because recent health problems caused them to reevaluate their priorities, Linda Rydstrom said.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, and her husband had surgery for prostate cancer in October. They are both healthy now.

"It's a blessing from God," Rydstrom said. "If anything, it helped me realize what's important - and it's not presents and gifts for adults."

So this year, instead of buying each other gifts, they bought presents for the elementary students, she said.

On Friday, those brightly wrapped presents covered two cafeteria tables, and the gym buzzed with excitement.

Buying the presents took Linda Rydstrom eight to 10 trips to Toys "R" Us, including one at 5 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. The older kids got handheld games; the younger kids got Play-Doh sets, trucks, tool sets and other toys.

Wrapping 250 presents took about a week and 20 rolls of wrapping paper, eight bags of bows and 10 rolls of tape, Rydstrom said.

Each gift had a tag with a child's name, something she said she made a point to do.

"We wanted Santa to call them up by name so they know that Santa knows who they are," she said.

After Santa handed out all of the gifts, students headed back to their classrooms for the big reveal. In Jami Jungck's first-grade class, students were bouncing around, showing off their new toys to their classmates.

Bethany Whitney, 6, and a friend were trying out her new Play-Doh ice cream parlor set.

"I've always wanted it," Bethany said. "I can't wait to bring it home."

In another class, second-grader RhiAnna Young, 7, was equally thrilled. Santa gave her a Play-Doh kitchen set, and she was eager to figure out what every piece did.

"Now I can play kitchen whenever I want," she said.

The students also received goody bags filled with Christmas candy and small toys, which were made possible by a $1,000 donation from Rapid City insurance agents.

About 40 Stevens High School students assembled the bags earlier this week.

For Barb Schmidt, a physiology, anatomy and biology teacher at Stevens, seeing the smiles on the kids' faces when Santa walked out was reward enough.

"It was so fun to see the looks on their faces and the smiles when Santa came," Schmidt said. "It's what Christmas is all about."