CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Salvation Army of the Coastal Bend is in need of donors for its Angel Tree program.
The program is has been around for 44 years. What Salvation Army does is that they work with families that can't afford to get their kids Christmas gifts.
This year, the Salvation Army will assist 386 families in the Coastal Bend.
The families are interviewed to find out what their children want for Christmas. Once all that information is collected, it's time to create an Angel tree.
Trees are decorated with name tags. Each tag has the name of a child, or Angel, and on that tag is each child's wish list.
To become a donor, go to a location where an Angel tree is on display and take one of the tags.
Donors then buy the gifts and take them to the Salvation Army of the Coastal Bend at 1804 Buford St. or to the Salvation Army Family Store at 5042 SPID.
"Once we have the donations received, they are sorted in our warehouse and then the families are called to receive their Christmas assistance," Nathanael Doria, Commanding Officer of the Salvation Army of the Coastal Bend said.
Commander Doria said they only have a few weeks to sort and wrap the gifts so they are asking donors to drop off their gifts beginning the first week of December.
All gifts should be in no later that Dec. 17.
This year, there's going to be an extra gift, one for the entire family. Apart from their gifts of toys and clothing each child will also be giving a food voucher from HEB.
"HEB has committed to pay for those vouchers of food then our families will have not only the presents but food for Christmas dinner thanks to HEB," Doria said. "We are so excited about that."
More than 1,000 donors help the Salvation Army of the Coastal Bend make all of this possible.
All of the gifts on the wish lists are between $30 to $60 but the effect they have is priceless.
"This assistance is for the parents to present gifts on Christmas day," Doria said. "We don't get to see the kids but we get to see the parents, you know, and when we are delivering these things, many cry, many don't quite understand that we didn't do it. We found the help for them."
To become a gift donor for the Angel Tree program, Angel Trees can be found at all area Walmarts and La Palmera Mall.
The Angel Tree program typically collects gifts for children ages 0 to 12. This year the Salvation Army will also take donations for teens between the ages of 13 and 15.
