How and Where to Adopt from a Salvation Army Angel Tree
*If you adopted an Angel from the Online Angel Tree, last day to drop off your gifts is December 9th!
*Last Day for in Person Adoptions is December 10th!
by Mina Frannea
Every holiday season, with the help of individuals, families, community groups, corporations and area businesses, The Salvation Army provides underprivileged children and seniors with holiday gifts through their Angel Tree Program. When you “adopt” an “Angel” from an Angel Tree, you are choosing to make the holiday season extra special for a child or senior by fulfilling his or her wish list. Wish lists are not just for fun things like children’s toys, but include clothing and other essentials too.
The Salvation Army has made it really easy to adopt one of their Angels by giving you two options. You can go to a local mall to adopt an Angel in person from an Angel Tree. This option gives you a chance to make a meaningful impact on your children by allowing them to participate in the process with you. Children can also help shop for wish list items. Once collected, the gifts will be distributed in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, and Ellis Counties.
Ten local malls in Dallas – Fort Worth are hosting Angel Tree Adoptions this year and the last drop of date for in person adoptions is December 10th.
The Salvation Army also gives you the option of adopting through their Online Angel Tree program. This process is very simple and lends itself easily to group participation. I co-lead a Girl Scout troop and when our girls were Brownies, one of our community service projects was adopting two Angels from the Angel Tree Program. My co-leader and I decided our girls could relate well to supporting a child in their own age group. We printed out a list of girls and boys from the Online Angel Tree website that were close in age and then had a group discussion which resulted in our Brownies choosing to adopt two 7-year-old-girls whose wish lists included a special toy and then essentials like a winter coat, underwear, socks, etc. We also discussed how much we could budget for this project and what would be involved in the actual shopping experience. This community service project had a big impact on our Brownies. It allowed them to develop an awareness of helping others in need and enabled them to learn helpful basic skills like staying within a budget and maximizing each dollar so that we could purchase every item on the two Angels’ wish lists. Our troop did a fantastic job with this activity and our Girl Scouts were excited that they could help two little girls have an extra special Christmas morning!
The Online Angel Tree Program is well organized, letting you choose a boy, girl or both to adopt. It provides the name and age of the child as well as a detailed list of items, including clothing sizes, which makes shopping for these things very easy. If you decide to go this route for your family or organization, keep in mind that you have to drop off your purchased wish list items, labeled with a designated code number that you receive, within six days of adopting your Angel(s). The last day to drop off items for online adoptions is December 9th. Drop off locations are any of the malls listed above. By participating in The Salvation Army/Dell Services Online Angel Tree, your donated gifts will go directly to the specific child you select. Once you pick a child’s name from the Online Angel Tree, he or she is removed from the list. You will be the only donor who will have the name and list of gifts for that child.
Whether you choose to adopt an Angel from an Angel Tree in person or through The Salvation Army’s online adoption program, your participation will make a difference! For more information, visit The Salvation Army’s website or call 214-353-4850.
Mina Frannea is a web editor and social media professional. Also a mom to nine-year-old twins, Mina enjoys writing about family friendly activities around town, and issues that are relevant to Moms and raising children. Mina also enjoys sharing favorite recipes and activities that keep her children busy and happy. Visit Mina’s blog at www.themomsjournal.com.
[...] Purchase a new toy for a less fortunate child. [...]
[...] ask her guests to contribute what they would have spent on a birthday gift to adopt Angels from the Salvation Army Angel Tree Program. This is such an inspiring story that we had to share it with all of our North Texas Kids [...]