Page 2 - 2018HOLIDAYS

2C El Dorado News-Times Saturday, December 15, 2018 Over 400 children benefit from Angel Tree Program in Union County
By Kaitlyn Rigdon
Staff Writer
The El Dorado Salvation Army’s annual Angel Tree Program provided Christmas gifts for over 439 children and 250 families in Union County this year.
The Angel Tree Program, which is one of the Salvation Army’s largest Christmas efforts, has been running for over 35 years to ensure that children have a wonderful holiday season with their families. The program is one
of the organization’s largest in-kind corporate giving programs in the United States, according to its website.
The Angel Tree Program was created by the Salvation Army in 1979 by Majors Charles and Shirley White in a Lynchburg, Virginia, shopping mall to provide clothing and toys for children during the holidays.
According to the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program’s history, the program got its name because the Whites identified the wishes of local children by writing their gift needs on Hallmark greeting cards that featured pictures of angels.
The Whites placed the cards on Christmas trees at the mall, which led to more than 700 children having a brighter Christmas that first year.
The Whites were transferred to Nashville, Tennessee, three years later, where WSM, which airs the Grand Ole Opry, came on board as the first Angel Tree co-sponsor in the United States.
With the promotion from WSM, as well as national publicity on CNN
and Larry Kind Show, the news of the Angel Tree Program claimed national attention and has since grown to what it is today.
According to the website, through the Angel Tree Program, about 1 million children receive Christmas gifts each year.
Local Salvation Army Capt. Elyshia Perdieu said they took applications in the first two weeks of October from families who wanted to
receive help through the Angel Tree Program. She said to register for the program, families had to bring in their information, including birth certificate, proof of income, proof of expenses, “just to make sure they meet the qualifications.”
They also had to tell the Salvation Army what wish list items the children wanted for Christmas. Wish list items
included clothes, shoes, toys, diapers, plus much more.
“We then put them on actual angel cards and then we distributed them out into the community to adopt a child and provide them with Christmas,” Perdieu said.
Perdieu said the qualifications include families not making over a certain amount of money.
“I don’t think anybody has been denied because there is a need,” she said. “But we do use those qualifications just to make sure.”
She said it’s organizations and individuals that help make Christmas possible for families. Organizations including the El Dorado Service League adopted angels this year.
Perdieu said there were Christmas trees with angels on them placed at HealthWorks Fitness Center and First Financial Bank. Murphy USA and First Financial Bank both adopted 150 angels each for the program this year.
Perdieu said all of the angels in the program were adopted out.
“All of them (were) taken, even the extra ones, the emergencies — they were taken by individuals and companies,” she added.
All of the gifts were due back on Dec. 8. They were organized and packed last week at the Salvation Army’s warehouse, located at the old El Dorado High School cafeteria, and will be distributed to families on Tuesday.
Perdieu said she has always been around the Angel Tree Program, since she was the child of a Salvation Army officer.
“My parents did it growing up,”
she said. “Seeing the parents when they break down just to know that somebody thought of them, even if it was just a pair of underwear and a toy, somebody thought enough about them and their family. It just keeps the spirit alive for me.”
Perdieu added that she initially was worried that they were going to have angels not adopted for the program, but said they were all adopted “very quickly.”
“It’s organizations and individuals that help make Christmas happen for us — for El Dorado,” she said. “I just want to thank the community for keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in El Dorado.”
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or krigdon@ eldoradonews.com.
Kaitlyn Rigdon/News-Times
Angel tree: The above photo was taken at HealthWorks Fitness Center, where they had a Christmas tree displayed with available angels to adopt through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program.