This years ‘Angel Tree Program’ had 201 children on the tree and all were selected and able to receive gifts. Along with the Angel Tree children, 66 families will be given food boxes with the gifts.
“This year was very successful,” Director, Shelby Huff said. “All kids will be blessed, along with all the families being given a food box donated by Country II and Priest Park Church of God.”
The Salvation Army and Priest Park Church have a partnership to aid folks in need of food, to be able to get the help they need. With the partnership, Priest Park thought of the idea to provide a food box in addition to the gifts. Cabot Corp. got into the holiday spirit with a toy drive to the addition of blessings the Salvation Army would be providing.
“Cabot did a toy drive for the kids, but they also provided over 50 bikes as well,” Huff said. “The VFW Auxiliary donated toys, with Walmart also donating clothes and toys. So this year our recipients were spoiled, and I loved it. This is what I hope for every year, I want every kid to have the best Christmas.”
The day when all gifts are given out is referred to as distribution day, but Huff and her team refer to it as ‘Blessing’s Day.’ With all the donations, the Salvation Army also received funds from a donor in Dallas specifically to get gifts for any angels that were selected but gifts weren’t turned in for them.
With the Angel Tree Program wrapped up and deliveries to be made, the Salvation Army still has it’s ‘Red Kettle Campaign’ happening. The campaign will run till December 24, Christmas Eve. The mayor challenge between Pampa’s mayor and Borger’s mayor has been in full swing, with the winner set to be announced after the season concludes.
“The mayor challenge has been wonderful,” Huff said. “We won’t know who the winner is, but I’ll provide my director with our final numbers and Borger will do the same and then my director will announce the winner for us. We don’t want to know, we want it to be a surprise, but it’s been going really well for our mayor, I will say that.”
The mayor challenge has involved City of Pampa employees ringing the bell, and the Pampa and Hoover Fire Department ringing the bells. There have been many organizations getting involved in ringing the bell, including Altrusa, NHS, Lions Club and the Chamber Tourism Community.
Friday, December 23, the Gray County Sheriff, Michael Ryan and the Pampa Chief of Police, Lance Richburg will have an all day challenge going between the two of them.
“I love seeing the community get really involved with this,” Huff said. “It’s for a great cause and it just brings us together as a community.”
Once the holiday season wraps, the Salvation Army will begin focusing more on the financial support they offer to people all throughout the year. But they’ll also be gearing up for the summer camp program they put on.
“We have a summer camp that we send kids to, it’s down in the DFW area,” Huff said. “It’s free for the kids, because we want them to get that experience that I loved getting to do as a kid. So we will start getting ready for that.”
The Salvation Army rely on donations and fund raisers like the ‘Red Kettle Campaign’ to continue doing what they do, ‘Doing The Most Good.’ The Salvation Army is also a recipient of United Way funds.
