Hey Nerds,
It’s that time of year where we get especially generous here in our nerdy home.
Let me get real here: I am a fairly generous person. I donate money to upwards of 5-10 organizations on North Texas Gives Day. Each year I give to 3-4 areas on TCU Gives Day. I make monthly contributions to two areas of the Daughters of the American Revolution. When my optometrist or university does a canned food or coat drive, I’m there donating. And up until last year I adopted multiple Angels from my work’s Angel Tree for the Salvation Army.
So what changed? I left my employer who routinely adopted a batch of Angels and relied on employees to adopt from our work tree. I would coordinate with my coworkers to adopt an Angel for the team and then adopt two by myself. My new company did not do Angel Trees and by the time I realized I hadn’t adopted an Angel it was too late. But not this year! Not. This. Year.
What’s an Angel?
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s OK! Let me enlighten you.
Every year since 1979. the Salvation Army serves communities through the Angel Tree program. Individuals and organizations can adopt “Angels” and help make sure they have Christmas gifts under their tree by fulfilling their wishlist. The process to become an Angel is as follows:
- Social service agencies and schools refer families to The Salvation Army for help with Christmas. Participants are interviewed to verify that the family is truly in need.
- The Salvation Army obtains the name of each child or special needs adults in the family and a list of desired Christmas gifts.
- Angel tags are printed for each individual and placed on Salvation Army Angel Trees at area malls and in local companies and organizations.
- Generous Donors select Angels, purchase gifts, and return them to the Angel Tree by the given deadline on each tag.
- Upon their return, the gifts ship to a Salvation Army Christmas Distribution Center for pickup by the Angel families.
- During the seven days prior to Christmas Eve, families pick up their gifts.
(Information taken from the NTX Salvation Army website.)
Individuals (I think?) and groups can also volunteer to work at the Salvation Army Christmas Distribution Centers helping organize donations. For Angels who are either not selected or their gifts never came, they accept donations of gifts for the “Forgotten Angels” and volunteers help make bags on the fly for Angels or organize donations. I’ve done this twice in Dallas and it is a really important service. Also, the Salvation Army is a well oiled machine. If you are ready to WORK, then go volunteer with them.
2020 – Getting Back at It
This year I remembered in early November that I needed to adopt an Angel this year. I hopped on over to the NTX Salvation Army website and discovered you can adopt an Angel online! You select the gender and age group of your desired Angel and the show you options. You can pick the Angel (or Angels!) you want to adopt and then save your Angel’s information.
This year I selected an adult male. Everyone wants to buy gifts for babies and young children. The toys and clothes are adorable! So I tend to gravitate towards teenagers and adults. The adult male I selected wanted jeans and a cowboy item. I hopped on Amazon and purchased him three pairs of Wranglers, a really cool blanket, a boot ornament, a small Frederick Remington replica statue, and a Dallas Cowboys beanie. I will take the gifts to the Hulen Mall on the designated dates.
You don’t have to break the bank when gifting, but I try my best to make the gifts substantial in the hopes that it brings a smile to someone’s face on Christmas day.
The Angel Tree isn’t unique to North Texas, it’s just my local organization. I urge anyone interested to look up their local Salvation Army and consider adopting an Angel. In fact, the Salvation Army has partnered with Walmart and you can go to this site, enter your zip code, add gifts to your cart, and Walmart will deliver it your local Salvation Army.
Let’s help make sure this weird crazy year ends with a little holiday cheer for children and special needs adults across America!
Get to shopping, nerds!
Cheers,
Head Nerd