What is an Angel Tree?

Children with parents in prison are often raised by a single mother, grandparents, or foster parents. In some instances they are even raised by older siblings. No matter who raises these children, the children struggle with confusing feelings.

When a parent is in prison and a child knows it, the child knows their family is different than what friends and teachers say families are like. They know their parents are away at Christmas. They know their teachers, neighbors, foster parents, grandparents, and friends look at them differently than other kids. They know that many people feel sorry for them and they know they do better with others if they keep the fact their parents are in prison a secret.

Imagine living in doubt about what others will think of you if they know about your dad or your mom and where they are.

Now imagine what it is like to know your mom or dad as a voice on the phone, a picture in a book, and a whisper by adults in another room.

Then think about Christmas and what we're told about Christmas and families.

Children with parents in prison need angels to remember them because the parents who are in prison can't be with them at Christmas. They also need angels to remember them because their families often have difficulty affording the basics of day-to-day life and children with parents in prison need angels to remember them because their parents are often forgotten.

Angel Tree ministries help connect children and parents with hope for tomorrows by showing them they are remembered.

Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree started in 1982. That was when an ex-prisoner, Mary Kay Beard, received permission to erect Christmas trees in shopping malls as a way to recruit shoppers into buying and giving gifts to prisoners' children.

Mary Kay Beard had served part of a 22-year sentence for burglary, grand larceny and robbery. She spent six Christmases in a state prison watching women gather soap, shampoo and toothpaste received from charity groups and wrap them as Christmas gifts for their children.

Mary Kay said, "I realized that children don't care as much about things as they do about being loved."

In Angel Tree's first year, Prison Fellowship volunteers distributed Christmas gifts to 556 children in Alabama. Since then Angel Tree has grown to serve over 370,000 of the estimated 1.7 million children in the United States who have a parent in prison.

Throughout the summer, parents in prison have a chance to sign up their children to receive Angel Tree Christmas gifts. The gifts are given by volunteers on behalf of the parents.

Once the lists of children are created, Angel Tree volunteers contact the children's caregivers to solicit their gift wishes.Often, those caregivers are foster parents, grandparents, or single moms.

From late summer through the fall and up to Christmas each child's name and gift wishes are written on paper angels and hung on Christmas trees placed in participating churches.

Volunteer families and individuals purchase and wrap the requested items and either deliver the gifts personally or host a party where the gifts are distributed to all the children sponsored within their church.

Each child receives a toy or recreational item and a clothing item (about $15-20 per gift).

In recent times, the program has been expanded.

Once relationships between the local church and a prisoner's child are established at Christmas, year-round initiatives are encouraged through Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree. These activities include mentoring, which enables mature Christian adults to invest in the lives of at-risk children, and summer camping, which gives children a positive, fun experience in an environment that promotes physical, emotional and spiritual health. Additionally, the church is encouraged to reach out to the families through their existing ministries.

Every year, Angel Tree does its best to match each prisoner's child with a nearby church. But each Christmas, thousands of requests come in for children who live in isolated or rural areas where an Angel Tree church is just not available. This also happens in dense urban areas where more church support is needed.

Parents in prison feel helpless. They act tough but know they don't have a way to show support to their families, particularly their children.

Parents in prison very rarely see their children. They have "burned their bridges" and "worn out their welcome" with their families and friends.

Consider this, the probability is high that the parents in prison now had parents who were in jail or prison at one time or another. While you're thinking about that, imagine that many parents who are in prison don't have any visitors at all. Parents in prison wish they could do something for their families and are frustrated because they don't have the freedom or the resources to do so.

Imagine what it must be like for parents who are in prison to ask for help by asking strangers to remember their children at Christmas. What it must mean to know someone else is caring for your child.

Angel Tree allows parents who are incarcerated to know the power of giving by asking a stranger to remember their children at Christmas and give an anonymous gift to their child during the Holidays.

Through the help of Angel Tree ministries, men and women who are in prison are able to give the name(s) of their children to a church or an agency conducting an Angel Tree campaign. That agency puts the child's name on an ornament on a tree and invites strangers to buy gifts for the children on the tree.

Then at Christmas, the agency or church gives the gift to the child and the parents in prison know their children are remembered.

When we think of angels watching over us, we think about how angels keep us safe. Imagine, angels watching over childreon while the play, while they learn, and while they grow capable of living with the knowledge of who they are.

It's no wonder Angel Tree comes at Christmas, a time celebrating miracles.

For about $11, a child will receive a message from his or her incarcerated parent, a Christmas gift, and an age-appropriate children's book that presents the Gospel. AngelTree.org allows the following options for anyone to choose a child (or children):

* Selecting a child (or children) in a particular state
* Selecting the gender of the child (or children)
* Selecting the age of the child (or children)

You can find out more by visiting http://www.angeltree.org

AngelTree