Last day to claim a child for the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program

Today is the deadline to deliver gifts for the Angel Tree Program to The Salvation Army Toccoa.

Brenda Gragg is the social worker for the Salvation Army Toccoa and is in charge of the Angel Tree program.

She says there are still many children who will not receive any presents this Christmas if no one claims them before today.

“This year we have more angels that are needed to be bought for, its around 500 angels that we have at this time,” Gragg said. “We have not got somebody to adopt all of them yet. It breaks my heart to even think about the possibility of some child going without on Christmas. I’d like to reach out to anybody in the community that could help us out.”

Gragg says that the outpouring from the community has been wonderful this year; however, the need in Stephens County continues to grow.

She tells WNEG News that some of the children have requested big ticket items, but, that doesn’t mean you are obligated to purchase those more expensive gifts.

“As far as purchases go, a lot of kids listed things that were large ticket items. Just follow your heart, do whatever you want to on those,” Gragg said. “You don’t have to purchase those big ticket items, you don’t even have to purchase exactly what they say. This is just a suggested thing we asked the kids to fill out. We’d like age-appropriate items and nothing dangerous, like a bb-gun or anything like that.”

According to Gragg there are over 500 children throughout the county who without the Angel Tree Program and generosity of the community would otherwise not receive a gift on Christmas day.

The Salvation Army Toccoa is located at 306 East Franklin Street in Toccoa.

The following are guidelines to follow when delivering gifts:

All gifts should not be wrapped;

Only age-appropriate items should be delivered;

And no potentially dangerous gifts (i.e. BB-guns).

Gragg says they still have a need for volunteer bell ringers.

“This year, unfortunately, we haven’t had a lot of volunteers,” Gragg said. “We’re paying everybody, at this point, except for a few volunteers. We definitely need more volunteers, so if somebody wants to get their church group together, or their business together, or just a family that wants to ring together give us a call we’ll be glad to place you somewhere. The money we collect helps with the social services department and different things like the Angel Tree Program and so forth.”

For additional information about the Angel Tree Program or how to volunteer contact the Salvation Army Toccoa by calling 706-886-5293.