More than 300 kids in the Centralia area will have Christmas gifts thanks to the expanded Angel Elf program held for the first time this year at the Calumet Street Christian Church.
Sharon Hall has conducted the program on a smaller scale for a number of years, but says with many of the programs providing Christmas assistance no longer in place the need was much greater this year.
“We’ve been able to set up a shop for parents to come in and choose all the Christmas items they need to make it a good Christmas for their kids. We are taking care of 0-18 as long as they are in school. We have a wide variety of gifts for the big kids and toys for the little ones. It being our first year it was kind of an organizing year but I think we are off to a great start.”
Parents had appointments throughout the day on Wednesday with some signing up late to be able to pick their gifts Thursday morning.
Hall worked with Crystal Koch this year. Koch organizes the year back to school and coat giveaways also held at Calumet Street Christian Church. She notes several large donations and many smaller gifts from community members made the expanded program possible.
(Photos: Pat Hodges)
