Project Angel Tree
Published: October 20, 2005
Hamilton County Angel Tree Volunteer Coordinator Mimi Neighbors said many more churches are needed to provide gifts for children of inmates to help them celebrate Christmas.
Project Angel Tree provides inmates the opportunity to give their children Christmas gifts. Project Angel Tree began in 1982 through the ministry of Prison Fellowship which was founded by Chuck Colson and has served over seven million children in the U.S. The ministry is now in 100 other countries, as well.
Founder of project Angel Tree, Mary Kay Beard, said each year inmates fill out an application for their children to receive Christmas gifts through churches. Churches volunteer to participate and provide Angel Tree project coordinators. Prison Fellowship then assigns the children to the church according to the number of children their congregation is able to support. A Christmas tree is placed in the church and participants select an angel ornament off the tree that has the name of a child for them to sponsor. As Christmas approaches members of the congregation either deliver presents directly to the children or they hold a party for them to come and receive their presents.
Ms. Neighbors said the ministry is careful to be loyal to two requirements Mary Kay established when the ministry was first trademarked to Prison Fellowship: 1) the gift is always given at the request of the incarcerated parent and on their behalf. 2) The gifts are always given through a church and accompanied with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Mary Kay said the idea project Angel Tree came from her own experiences as an inmate. When she was serving time in prison, she was impressed by people in the community who distributed gifts to her and fellow inmates at Christmas time. She said people gave them toiletries as well as “kid’s crafts to keep them occupied.” Many of the women gave the gifts they received to their children since they had nothing else to give them.
When Mary Kay was released from prison after six years, she began working for Prison Fellowship. During her first year she was put in charge of developing a project for Christmas. While speaking at a ladies’ luncheon, one of the attendees commented that children are the victims of crime and that she would be interested in helping the children of inmates. Mary Kay states, “This was the birth of Project Angel Tree.”
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: