Angel Tree expands to help evacuee families
Published: October 11, 2005
With the holidays comes Angel Tree, the Salvation Army program that pairs needy children with community donors. The main tree will be inside The Mall at Barnes Crossing. Mary Green, president of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary, met recently with Daily Journal reporter Sandi P. Beason about this year’s gift drive.
Angel Tree sign-up has begun. Who do you see in need of assistance?
We are seeing a mix of people, of course, from evacuees from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast and also people that have children that have medical problems and go to Le Bonheur or one of the hospitals in Memphis. Every one of them has a different type of conflict in their life that brings them to the application process for assistance at Christmastime.
How will the numbers be affected by all the evacuees in this area?
Normally, we serve approximately 2,000 children. This year, we’re thinking within the communities we serve, in the Lee County and Union County areas and Monroe County, we’re thinking we’ll have an additional 200-500 families.
How will you recruit the additional community support?
One way we are looking at handling the volume of people, of course, is we’re thinking about corporate adoption, which we think will alleviate the overload of people that need assistance that we had not anticipated. We look to churches. Sunday school classes are always willing to help. Some say, We can give “X” number of gifts,’ and not for a particular angel. Just for an angel that might not get anything. We always accept money because we can always go shop for the gifts.
Are you asking for any special items?
We do have people that just donate “X” number of bicycles to be given away. Last year had the highest number we have ever had. … It’s just a humbling sensation to know that everybody is so generous.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: