The auditorium of Butler Catholic School was transformed into Santa's Workshop on Wednesday morning, much to the excitement of the younger students.

The workshop gives students the opportunity to shop for gifts separate from their parents and with the help of older students, according to Kim Ferguson, a volunteer who has been coordinating the event for about 12 years.

Ferguson's now-adult children participated when they were still in school, which was how she first got involved.

Originally, the event sold secular items, but Ferguson decided to bring in a local, faith-based organization instead.

“Twelve years ago, I started bringing Gospa Missions because we're a Catholic school, so we should be buying faithful stuff,” Ferguson said. “It really depicts the true meaning of Christmas.”

The two-day sale pairs seventh- or eighth-grade students with students in preschool to second grade, helping them figure out how to budget the money parents sent them with and pick out appropriate gifts for every person on their list.

And the students know their money is going to a good cause as well: funding orphanages in Africa and India run by Evans City's Mary Rutkoski, owner of faith-based shop Amazing Grace.

Rutkoski, 69, has been involved with the Abode for Children nonprofit for 26 years, since her late husband, Thomas, started the organization in the 1990s.

In 1995, Thomas Rutkoski was invited to Nigeria by a priest from the area to speak during a religious retreat, Mary Rutkoski said.

“He asked me to go 10 times, and I said no 10 times,” she said. “I ended up going ... That's when we saw the children, the condition, how they went to school.”

Rutkoski said the students went to school in a one-room cinder block building with only benches, no desks. “(Thomas) said, 'We have to fix this,'” she remembered.

Today, there's a building in Ogoja, Cross River State, Nigeria, that houses 200 orphans and provides a school for 800 students. The building also includes a medical annex, a 40-acre farm and a fishery — ”things that help them when they're finished with school, help them learn a trade,” Rutkoski said.

In Cherukupalli, India, there is a school for 500 children, the St. Thomas Orphanage for boys and the St. Teresa of Calcutta orphanage for girls.

The orphanages are funded solely by Gospa Missions, which pairs with companies for sponsorships and grants. But the real work is done by the people of that country, building and improving their communities.

“We basically have the position of being funders,” Rutkoski said. “Part of the whole business plan is to provide jobs to the qualified people in the village ... We're convinced that the better person we make, the better the country will be.”

The nonprofit has received some criticism, questioning why this work is done abroad instead of in the United States.

The dollars raised for the orphanages in Nigeria and India would not have gone as far as they did if the work was being done here, Rutkoski said. The average salary in Nigeria is $25 per month, she said, meaning the operating costs are much lower.

In addition to that, construction is much more affordable there, she said. The roof at the orphanage in Nigeria, a 22,000-square-foot roof, was replaced last year for only $25,000, she said.

The $1.5 million spent in Nigeria and the $1 million in India have achieved much more than could've been done domestically, Rutkoski said.

Before the students did their shopping, they were taught about the orphanages they would be helping, the children just like them but across the world and without the same privileges, according to Ferguson.

Isabella Krahe, a 4-year-old at Butler Catholic's preschool, was so excited to shop Santa's Workshop that she couldn't contain her energy. Isabella was joined by eighth-grade student Andrea Bean, who helped Isabella pick out gifts for her mother, father, sister and two grandmothers.

Isabella said she knows her family will like the gifts, but for Andrea, the best part of being partnered with a younger child was seeing the excitement.

As for the Abode for Children nonprofit, Rutkoski said that other than the employees at Amazing Grace, she's one of the only people who is running the nonprofit.

After Thomas's death in 2011, she became concerned about the future of the orphanages, and she has been conducting a search for an executive director of the nonprofit.

In her will, she lists a man she will be giving the nonprofit to, but she hasn't told him yet — and doesn't plan to. That way, he can't back out of it, Rutkoski joked.