The OU Food Pantry is hosting its second annual Angel Tree event, accepting donations through Wednesday. All Angel Tree tags have been selected as of the publication of this story, but the food pantry encourages people to donate or volunteer.
First introduced in 1979 in a Virginia shopping mall, the Angel Tree program, created by the Salvation Army, started with Shirley and Charles White, who came up with the idea of cutting the angels out of a Christmas card and hanging them on a Christmas tree with the clothing sizes of children on them.
According to The Salvation Army, the Angel Tree program matches anonymous “angels” — children or senior adults who provide a wish list of items — with potential donors.
Last year, the Food Pantry shared a nomination link on its Instagram for community members to nominate potential angels. According to OU Nightly, around 40 angels were sponsored last year.
Trent Rogers, co-associate director of the OU Food Pantry’s Community Engagement Communication Team, wrote in an email to OU Daily that a Google Form was used to collect this year’s 17 angels.
“We had a team member last year that took on most of the responsibility for Angel Tree, and she had some personal things come up (this year), and so we just got started kind of late, so I think we didn't have as many people who had an opportunity to fill out the form,” Rogers said.
According to Rogers, the idea of an Angel Tree was brought to him by one of the team members at the OU Food Pantry and is not in collaboration with other organizations, like the Salvation Army.
“Our Angel Tree was started last year by one of my team members, Sami Groves. She had done an Angel Tree in the past and thought it would be a good opportunity to go above and beyond for our clients during the holidays,” Rogers wrote.
The existence of Angel Trees is important not only to the kids and senior adults who receive gifts, but the community as well.
“Our main motivation is we thought it would be a good way to continue giving back to our clients and give their children an opportunity to get presents. I think that was our main motivation, just another way to be connected with our clients,” Rogers said.
Rogers said the reaction from children and families makes the Angel Tree event worth it.
“They're usually pretty grateful. You know, it's a good way to reduce the financial burden of Christmas, so everyone can enjoy the holidays without having to worry about paying for stuff. So I say they're usually pretty grateful and happy that we're offering the program,” Roger said.
This story was edited by Madisson Cameron. Chelsea Low and Sophie Hemker copy edited this story.
