CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Santa has his own workshop in the north pole and here in the Coastal Bend he gets a little help from the Salvation Army.
Volunteers spent Wednesday inside their workshop preparing for the annual angel tree program giveaway. The program is for local families who may need a little help this holiday season.
“They apply for assistance for their children, and they sign up the angels and we get all of their information like their name age and their wishes and wants,” said Major Tracey Czajkowski with the Salvation Army.
Each box inside the workshop represents a family and is filled with toys and much more.
“We want to make sure that they have several outfits of clothing, new shoes if we got the sizes and if they’re babies, they have diapers and wipes, necessities,” said Czajkowski.
Czajkowski has been with the Salvation Army for over 20 years and says it takes a team and months to make this annual event possible.
“In September we’ll start talking to different corporations and churches and groups that might want to adopt an angel tree for their organization and get them on board to how many angels they want to adopt,” said Czajkowski. “In October is when we take the applications from the families and we enter all the information and verify that they are eligible for the program.”
And because of the pandemic Czajkowski says they’ve seen an increase in need.
“There’s a lot more people helping out and a lot more people applying for assistance,” said Czajkowski.
Czajkowski says she’s thankful for the opportunity every year to bring joy to hundreds of families.
“It feels wonderful to be able to help a family who wouldn’t otherwise have a joyful Christmas morning. To have them not worry about gifts for their kids,” said Czajkowski.