April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Angels sought for Hope Elementary Christmas wishes
And once again, school Secretary Heidi Forney is nervous.
Nervous that not enough people will come forward to buy gifts for children in need. Nervous that people will get too busy with their own lives. Nervous that some children won't get anything for Christmas.
Forney admits she might be overreacting; Hope area residents have certainly shown plenty of compassion in the past. But with more than 90 children signed up this year, the stakes are higher than ever.
The Angel Tree program has been a long standing tradition at Hope Elementary School, thanks to a partnership with Community Center of Hope and United Way 211 that supplies names compiled from area help organizations. Each holiday season, school personnel put up a tree decorated with ornamental slips and encourage people to come in off the street to take one or more during office hours. By doing so, they commit to purchasing for one of the area's less fortunate children some or all of the wish-list items they specify on the slip.
Each gift needs to be wrapped and tagged with the Angel number and returned to the school by Dec. 14, according to this month's school newsletter.[[In-content Ad]]
