The Christmas tree given to 10-year-old Sarah Wheatley has one angel on top, but a host of earthly angels were responsible for the heartfelt present.

Each of Sarah's 85 fourth-grade classmates at Sparks Elementary School made a pink ornament for the 7-foot, 6-inch tree, which was then covered with about 900 lights.

Most of the students have not seen their friend since she suffered severe head injuries in a car accident Oct. 5 that killed her father, Tim Wheatley.

She was in Johns Hopkins Pediatric Intensive Care Unit until Oct. 22 and then transferred to Kennedy Krieger Institute. Doctors expected Sarah to stay at Kennedy Krieger until mid-December for physical, occupational and speech therapy.

But Sarah has surprised all the medical experts by making enormous progress when faced with injuries that are fatal to most. She came home to Monkton three weeks early, in time for Thanksgiving. The tree came a week later.

"Sarah's reaction when the tree was delivered was, 'Whoa, how are they going to get that thing through the door?' " said her mother, Beth Wheatley. "She has loved having it. It's something that we will treasure for years."

Sarah loves to look at the ornaments and try to guess which classmate made each one, Beth Wheatley said.

Sparks Principal Sharon Kearney came up with the idea to make a tree for Sarah and display it at the Festival of Trees, an annual fundraiser for Kennedy Krieger Institute, which evaluates and treats children and teens with disorders of the brain or spinal cord.

Although the public is asked to purchase trees on display, Sparks PTA bought Sarah's tree before it was even taken to the festival.

"We made it the most girlie-girl tree we could," Kearney said. "The students made ornaments of things that Sarah likes and everything was pink."

Knowing Sarah likes singer Taylor Swift, Sparks secretary Tammy Kincaid tried to buy a Taylor Swift doll to convert into an angel for the tree top. When she couldn't find one, she settled for a Barbie doll with pink hair. Kincaid added a halo, a pink feather boa and glimmering robes. She then made a tree skirt and bordered it with a pink boa, too.

"We were putting the tree together before the festival when some people who work with Sarah at Kennedy Krieger came over because they had already heard about it," Kearney said. "They said they knew it was Sarah's tree as soon as they saw all the pink."

Sarah hoped she could leave Kennedy Krieger long enough to see her tree in person, her mother said. When they asked her doctor Nov. 24 about the possibility of a short temporary release, he took some X-rays and said she was doing so well that she could go home.

Five days later, Kincaid and her husband, Jack, delivered the tree when the festival ended.

"When we pulled up, Sarah was looking out," Kincaid said. "Everybody was oohing and aahing when we brought it in and set it up in their dining room."

Sarah continues to improve and continues rehabilitation as an outpatient at Kennedy Krieger. She will be evaluated in January and hopes to be back at Sparks Elementary School sometime in early 2010.

Anyone wishing to contribute to a fund set up by the Wheatleys' friends and neighbors can send a check payable to the Wheatley Family Fund, P.O. Box 144, Monkton, MD 21111.

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