If you need proof that Santa Claus exists, look no further than the heart of 12-year-old Zach Walz, a sixth-grader at Linden Elementary School.

The story of Walz’s extraordinary act of Christmas kindness actually begins at the beginning of the school year.

When the school year began, new principal Katie Huber attended a staff retreat where O’Dell Owens, president of Cincinnati State, gave a talk about increasing attendance in urban schools.

Inspired by his talk, Huber came up with an idea to boost Linden’s attendance. She asked the PTO if they would buy four bicycles, a big one and a little one each for a boy and a girl.

Her original idea was that every child who had perfect attendance would have their name put in a hat, and the winner of the drawing would receive a new bicycle.

After announcing the incentive to students, Huber said several approached her, asking to get a bicycle for a younger brother or sister if they won.

“It never occurred to me that they would want to have a bicycle for anyone other than themselves,” Huber said.

So instead of a straight drawing by age group, Huber and Dean of Students Pam Theurer rounded up four buckets and put one in front of each bicycle so the children who achieved perfect attendance — which turned out to be more than 200 in a school of about 800 — could put their name with the bicycle they wanted.

Huber said that she watched as the children did so, and was particularly curious about how Walz went about it.

“He went to the bucket with the big bike, started to put his ticket in, then paused and shook his head,” she said. “Then he walked a little further and put his name in the bucket with the small boys bike.”

The elementary was buzzing Thursday with students’ anticipation of the drawing. Four lucky children claimed their bicycle prizes, but Walz was not among them. He said he was a little disappointed, but was glad someone was getting a new bike.

Shortly after the drawing, however, an anonymous friend of the school showed up with two more brand new bicycles and a bag of winter coats.

So Theurer drew two more names from the little bike buckets. Then Huber called over the loudspeaker for the two new winners to come to the office — including Walz.

But Walz wasn’t planning to give the bike to a younger sibling. He wanted to win the bike, he said, for two children that live across the street from him.

“The little kid had a pink and purple bike that barely has any air in the tires,” Walz said.

The pedals, he said, were worn out. Pedaling was made even more difficult because the children had holes in their shoes, he said.

“So one day we were riding bikes, and I asked him if he wanted a bike for Christmas,” Walz said.

That night, he delivered the newly-won bike to the family. And after he did his homework, he went riding with the two boys, who took turns riding the shiny new bike.

Walz, however, had to ride his sister’s bike that night because his was broken.

That’s right: Zach Walz made a concerted effort to get to school every day so he could win a brand new bicycle and then gave it away, even though his own bike was broken.

When Huber heard this Friday at school, she was amazed. She made some phone calls and got more of the story — the family across the street recently moved in with their grandmother. The grandmother’s sister had recently died, and everyone in the family was only going to get one Christmas present this year because she had to pay for the funeral.

Then, when Huber was bragging about Walz’s act of kindness to teachers in the teacher’s lounge, another bit of Christmas magic started at Linden Elementary.

“One of my teachers said, ‘If we commit to chipping in $20 apiece, we can buy Zach a new bike,” Huber said. “Then another teacher got on the phone, called up her husband who works the night shift, woke him up, and told him to go buy a bicycle and get it to the school by 1:30.”

He did, and on Friday, Walz got called down to the office again to receive a second bicycle — one he could keep. And with the money left over from the staff’s collection, plans have been made to fix Walz’s old bike so he can give it to the other boy in the family across the street, Huber said.

Huber also made arrangements to get some of the donated coats to the family. One of them had to be repaired, however, and when the donor took them to a local seamstress, she heard the story and fixed it for free.

“The holiday spirit has been everywhere this week,” Theurer said. “It just keeps going and going.”