Six years ago Stormy Pittman knew the importance of keeping family together as she stepped up to adopt three siblings at the same time.
Those children are now 10, 8 and 7 years old.
Pittman arrived at the Salvation Army of Odessa on Friday morning with her three children to pick up their Angel Tree presents.
“We’ve been doing the Angel Tree for about six years now,” Pittman said. “It relieves some of that stress of the holiday and trying to get all the gifts they want. It’s a huge blessing.”
Salvation Army of Odessa Major Luis Melendez said the program will help 300 families and more than 1,100 children. Each family that receives gifts from the Angel Tree will also receive a Christmas meal that includes a ham.
Melendez said the Angel Tree program is a collaboration effort of Empty Stocking Fund, toy drives and donations. The Empty Stocking Fund reached and exceeded its $100,000 goal by more than $9,000 this year.
“It feels good,” Melendez said. “It’s a wonderful, magical moment for the families and for the children. We know from our end in these homes that under the tree or on Christmas Day that they will get a gift because of the generosity of our community.”
One mother who is thankful for the extra help this holiday season was Kayla Cooper.
This was the first year that Cooper participated in Angel Tree and she explained that she didn’t know what to expect from the program. Cooper has two boys and one girl.
“I was expecting little things to round out Christmas,” Cooper said. “But seeing the generosity of the people of Odessa, it really shows us that our town does a lot for each other.”
Cooper said she fell on some hard times this holiday season after her father passed away on Thanksgiving. Cooper said money that would have been used for Christmas presents went to her father’s burial fund instead.
“I was really freaking out that I wasn’t going to be able to do Christmas for them,” Cooper said.
Melendez said seeing the smiles on the face of parents makes the months of planning and preparing for this day worth it.
“It’s a joyful moment because there’s a sense of satisfaction from all the hard work that we collaboratively did and we can be the representatives as the Salvation Army for the community,” Melendez said. “We were the ones that asked for it. Processed it. Today we are giving it.”
