Angel army: This family just keeps on giving
Published: December 20, 2005
Delores Coleman Freeman’s family room looked like Santa’s workshop.
New bicycles were parked around the room; bags of toys, games and clothes occupied the sofa, the coffee table and just about every other available space. The place was brimming with holiday spirit.
Freeman and her family go all-out at Christmas - for children they don’t even know.
“People are always doing things for us,” said Freeman, “so we just try to pass the blessing along.”
What Freeman and her family do is grab a bunch of tags bearing the names of children in need off the Love Angels tree at their church, Cedar Street Baptist Church of God on Church Hill, and go shopping. The tradition started several years ago with just Freeman and her sister Shirley Thomas.
But every year, someone else in the family has wanted in on the action. This year, the benefactors include Freeman’s mother, her daughter, her son and his wife, her brother and his wife, a niece and a great-nephew, Reginald Leonard, a senior at Highland Springs High who bought two bags of gifts with money from his part-time job. This Christmas, the family purchased piles of gifts for 13 children in the community, some of whom are staying in temporary shelters.
“I wish we could do it for every child without a parent or without a special Christmas,” said Thomas, 57, who is retired from Philip Morris.
Freeman and Thomas were reluctant to be interviewed, saying they didn’t want to appear boastful, but they decided their story might encourage others to do good.
“You can always do something to help someone else, squeeze one more dollar out,” said Freeman, 58, a housekeeper and cook who sometimes juggles three jobs to finance her Christmas giving. “We’re not a rich family, so if we can do it, anybody can do it.”
Dorothy Streat, a member of the church group that organizes the Love Angels tree project, picked up the gifts from Freeman’s home in Henrico County last week. Took her two pickup trucks.
In all, the project will brighten the holidays for more than 60 children and adults, Streat said.
“They are really a generous family,” Streat said of Freeman and her relatives. “Even before I can get the names of the people, [Freeman] is asking me, ‘Do we have angels yet?’ She’s all gung-ho about it.”
For Freeman and her family, the weeks leading up to Christmas revolve around Hot Wheels and Barbies, basketballs and Candyland. Actually, they shop all year - whenever they find bargains - and stockpile for the holidays. “I’m a coupon girl,” Freeman said with a laugh, as she proudly showed off a $43 children’s coat she purchased for $15.
Freeman, the oldest of six children, shares her home with her 78-year-old mother, Emma Coleman, and a great-nephew. When their extended family gathers around the table to hold hands and say a prayer of thanksgiving on Christmas, they will include their gratitude for Coleman, who in a sense started all this.
“My mother has always instilled in us,” Freeman said, “that it’s always more blessed to give than to receive.”
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