Almost 10,000 children receive gifts from angel program

By EMMILY N. BRISTOL

VIEW STAFF WRITER

The Salvation Army helped nearly 10,000 valley children have a special Christmas this year. More than 600 volunteers distributed presents at Cashman Center on Dec. 21 and 22.

Lt. Col. Maud Sullivan with the Salvation Army has been helping coordinate the army's Christmas Angel Program for 18 years.

"It's very good. It's wonderful," said Sullivan about the program.

It took 12 hours for Salvation Army employees and volunteers to sort thousands of gifts on more than 250 tables at the center Dec. 20. Bettye Buckendorf, youth director with the Salvation Army, organized the volunteers.

This year, approximately 500 children weren't adopted from the famous trees all over town. Buckendorf said most of the kids not adopted were pre-teen boys.

"Nobody wants to adopt the 12-year old boys," said Buckendorf.

There is a contingency plan for this, however. While 225 tables were filled with toys tagged and labeled for the waiting hands of parents, just to the left was what Salvation Army volunteers call the "toy shop." The area is stocked with tables of unwrapped toys which the Salvation Army buys and volunteers put together for kids without donors, or to complete packages turned in with missing items. The angel program requires each donor to give a gift and an article of clothing.

"We get a lot of presents without clothes," Buckendorf said.

When things aren't complete or seem inadequate, the group adds to it with items from the toy shop.

Volunteer, Summer Wood, a 12-year old Little Miss USA World, used the toy shop to make a package a little better for one of the families she helped this year. A 10-year-old girl had asked for roller skates and her donor had bought two Barbie dolls instead. Summer convinced the volunteers to swap a pair of roller skates from the toy shop with one of the dolls.

Summer's mom, Rebecca Wood, said the girl's face lit up when she saw the roller skates. "You could tell they really appreciated it," she said.

"Just to see the look on people's faces is so rewarding," said Rebecca Wood, who is Mrs. Nevada Globe.

The Woods' learned about the angel program from their friend, Teen Nevada Globe winner Amanda Shelton. She participates in the program through her church, Shadow Hills Baptist.

"You would hope that if you were in the same position people would do this for you," Shelton said.

Each family in the program receives gifts for each child and a food voucher based on the number of people in the family. Angel family participants were given a code number and time to pick up their presents and a food voucher from Raley's supermarket. The Salvation Army gave $81,000 to Raley's to supply the food vouchers this year.

While most people were leaving Cashman Center with smiles and bags of presents for their loved ones, not everyone's Christmas was looking bright.

Sharon Coleman, a seven-year Las Vegas resident, sat in a chair waiting with hopeful anticipation that her four children would have presents for Christmas. Unfortunately, in all the thousands of people the Salvation Army helps with their program, sometimes mistakes happen. Coleman's paperwork for her children's presents had been misplaced.

Coleman waited until only a couple of weeks before Christmas to sign up for the program because she wanted "to make sure (she) really needed it."

She stood in line at 3 a.m. to be among the 50 people who are able to sign up a day during holiday registration for the program. The doors open at 6 a.m. to sign up, but anyone who wants a good chance arrives earlier. On the day Coleman went, the line stretched around the building.

The only presents her children could get this year was through the angel program because she couldn't afford anything else. Thankfully for Coleman, she was able to get her food voucher and some small items from the toy shop before going home that day.

Despite the occasional mistake, workers and volunteers with the program consider this to be one of the most successful years yet.

Several public and private organizations stepped up to the plate to help the charity fulfill the needs of thousands of kids in the area. Sullivan said several companies such as Interstate Plumbing and Air Conditioning Inc., Toys for Tots and radio station KOMP-FM (92.3) donated many needed gifts.