ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- Ten-year-old Katelyn Wilson was all smiles thinking about how excited she was going to be, spending time with her family and opening presents on Christmas morning when she had a thought that made her pause.

“I started thinking about all the kids who would be sitting in the hospital, possibly without any family around them,” she said. “I thought about how bored and how sad they must be.”

So Katelyn, the daughter of Richard and Lauri Wilson of Elsanor, decided to do something about it.

She talked to her mother who contacted the USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital and asked what they could do.

And so, Operation Smile was born in hopes of spreading some Christmas cheer this holiday season.

Katelyn wants everyone to donate coloring books, reading books, puzzle/game books, drawing/writing pads, crayons and colored pencils. The items will then be gathered up and delivered to at USA Children’s and Women’s hospital on Christmas Eve for the children to have on Christmas Day.

Other items are also being accepted, but because of infection control, the hospital will not accept stuffed animals or anything with fabric.

Katelyn’s school has already jumped in with both feet, filling one box to overflowing with items on the list. Katelyn’s church, the Robertsdale Church of Christ, is also helping serve as a drop-off location, as well as Tucker’s Tang Soo Do in Elberta where Katelyn takes martial arts classes, and Lauri Wilson’s business, Seabreeze Salon and Gifts in Robertsdale.

“I’m hoping we get something to give to every child in the hospital,” Katelyn said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

So far, Katelyn said, she has collected plenty of coloring books, crayons, colored pencils and reading books, but is still looking for puzzle books.

A fourth-grader at Elsanor School, Katelyn says her favorite subject is science, because of “all the experiments and stuff you get to have a lot of fun doing.”

She’s also been thinking about becoming a meteorologist when she grows up, maybe forecasting the weather on television but she, “hasn’t really thought about that,” yet.