The season of giving was on full display at the DOC Training Academy in Elizabethtown in December as 25 children in 10 families received presents donated by academy staff and students.
The academy works with the non-profit group West Shore Friends annually to provide for needy families at Elizabethtown Area School District's Bear Creek Elementary, giving youngsters a full set of clothing – including a coat and a pair of shoes, along with a few toys.
The heart-warming yuletide tradition is now in its 11th year.
"This was our biggest year yet in terms of donations," Training Academy's Empowerment Committee Chair and staff member Sue Bryan said. "Bear Creek Elementary was blown away by our donation this year."
Ms. Bryan coordinates the Angel Tree project each year, a task she is more than delighted to undertake. "Our staff and Basic Training classes are unbelievably generous," she said.
Each year the school sends Ms. Bryan a list of children who are candidates to receive presents. She then creates a paper angel ornament representing each child and hangs them on the Christmas tree on display at the academy. The staff – and students who are there for Basic Training – are encouraged to select an angel and "sponsor" a child by handing the angels back in with wrapped presents. The angels don't stay on the tree very long.
In addition, the annual staff Christmas party holds a raffle where the price of admission is a gift card – these cards are then collected and sent along with the presents to the West Shore Friends. They use the gift cards to not only buy the Bear Creek Elementary kids a few additional presents, but clothing, necessities and toys for other families throughout the region as well.
This year's raffle generated around $1,100 in gift cards alone.
Other donations and gifts are also accepted, particularly from the Basic Training class. Academy staff then volunteer to help process the gifts, packaging and transporting them to the West Shore Friends.
"It takes special people with a huge heart to volunteer their own time to help our families in our community," Bryan said. "They hould all consider themselves angels this holiday season."