JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Thousands of children across Northeast Florida will wake up to a brighter holiday this year as The Salvation Army had its Angel Tree distribution on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The former Bealls department store was transformed into a massive holiday workshop, filled with bicycles, toys, and even televisions, along with blankets and plenty of holiday goods. For the hundreds of local families in attendance, the event represented more than just gifts; it offered a sense of relief and hope during a challenging season. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cGod shows up and shows out,\u201d Brittney said, her face beaming with joy as she collected her items. \u201cHe uses the right people, my kind of people.\u201d <\/p>\n She was not alone in her gratitude. Volunteers spent hours helping families load their vehicles with bags of holiday cheer. <\/p>\n According to Major Keith Biggers, Commander of The Salvation Army of Northeast Florida, the program is reaching thousands of households. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are over 600 families here in Jacksonville today,\u201d Major Biggers said. \u201cTotal, we are going to have 3,500 throughout Northeast Florida, with 2,100 of those right here in Jacksonville.\u201d <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n The distribution is the culmination of a month-long process that began when families filled out wish lists for their children. Thanks to the generosity of local donors who \u201cadopted\u201d these angels, those lists were transformed into reality. <\/p>\n For the volunteers who make the event possible, the reward is seeing the immediate impact on their neighbors. <\/p>\n \u201cThey cry, they never expect the magnitude that they get,\u201d said volunteer Diane Bailey. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Thousands of children across Northeast Florida will wake up to a brighter holiday this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[48216,48215,48217,16986,1191,48218,116,118,117,6489,634,9280,12841,34430],"class_list":{"0":"post-89066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-angel","9":"tag-angel_tree_distribution","10":"tag-beale","11":"tag-brittany","12":"tag-christmas","13":"tag-commerce_center_drive","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","16":"tag-jacksonville-news","17":"tag-jessica_salinas","18":"tag-local","19":"tag-northeast_florida","20":"tag-program","21":"tag-salvation_army"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}