TAMPA – The Salvation Army Angel Tree program makes sure Santa comes to every house.
“I can tell you in Hillsborough County, the support has been overwhelming,” said Major Mark Woodcock of the Tampa Hillsborough County Salvation Army.
“Toys are very expensive. And so, we’re very thankful for the generosity of the community,” Woodcock said. “Not only are these children receiving new toys, but also new shoes and new clothing.”
Families in need can register their child in the fall and then a donor will shop for those gifts.
The tags share the child’s needs, such as clothes, shoes & socks and wants, like toys and bikes.
“We will distribute all those toys and new clothing to the families as they come through our distribution center and pick those up so they’ll have ’em ready for Christmas morning for their children,” Woodcock said.
Other supporters:
Famous Tate stores hosts an angel tree at all 11 of their showrooms.
Both stores I went to were out of angel tree tags because so many people participated this year.
“It’s a great cause,” said Claude Ward, the General Manager of Famous Tate. “Obviously demonstrated by the fact that we’re already out of tags. All of the tags have been taken and fulfilled.”
One store went through two rounds of tags.
“We are anxious to get more tags and try to get more gifts for more children,” Ward said.
Famous Tate uses their own delivery trucks to get gifts from their stores to the Salvation Army distribution center.
“Our effort is mostly having the trees, having them in the showrooms, making sure we have as many tags as we can, and then distributing the all the gifts to the Salvation Army when the program is over,” Ward said.
If you shop for an angel, the gifts you buy will go to the child on the tag.
There are also tags for ‘Forgotten Angels.’
This is an opportunity to provide clothes and toys for the general pile.
The Salvation Army uses those gifts to give to angels whose lists have not been fulfilled.
“So if someone adopts a child and clothing only comes back, hey, we’re going into our toy shop and we’re looking for toys to put in that bag along with the clothes,” Woodcock said.
The Salvation Army is committed to each registered family.
If you sign up, the volunteers will make sure your child has gifts.
“We’re keeping that commitment. So, if that angel is not returned, we make sure that we fulfill that commitment,” Woodcock said. “And how we do that is through forgotten angels.”
What you can do:
The Salvation Army will serve 12,000 kids across the Tampa Bay region this Christmas. 2,500 of those kids will be in Tampa.
Gifts are due to the Tampa branch by December 8th. There is still time to give this year.
Just head to your local Salvation Army website to find an Angel Tree near you.
The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews done by FOX 13’s Danielle Zulkosky.