SAN ANTONIO – The Christmas trees are decorated and the angels have been placed, waiting to be adopted for the holidays.
The Salvation Army is asking people to buy clothes and gifts for children and seniors this Christmas.
“We do it to provide joy for Christmas, for families that are low income, for families that struggle to make ends meet all year round,” Captain Ashley Robinett, the area commander of Salvation Army San Antonio, said. “It doesn’t matter that we know that Christmas is coming. When you live on a fixed budget, they struggle to make ends meet and they want to have joy in their home too, on Christmas.”
Robinett said they hope to help 4,500 children, from infants to 12 years old, and seniors this December that come from households that aren’t able to afford Christmas.
“They’re extremely thankful on the days when they come and they pick up the gifts,” Robinett said. “Sometimes, you know, they might be in tears over the amount of gifts that are given for their kids. This is a 100% donor-driven program.”
You can find the Angel Tree program at local Walmart and Sams Club locations, North Star Mall, Ingram Park Mall and South Park Mall, or by visiting salvationarmysatx.org.
The angels will include the age of the child or senior, their clothing size and some gifts on their wish list.
The Salvation Army asked donors to keep the gifts unwrapped, bag them up with the angel tag on them and return it to one of these locations:
“A lot of times we hear stories from like that from our donor sometimes that somebody who was a recipient of the Angel Tree program as a child and now they’re in a position where they’re able to give back,” Robinett said. “And so they want to come and they want to take an angel off the tree because somebody helped them when they were a kid.”