It felt like Christmas in June as I entered Broward Correctional Institution’s indoor visiting park with faithful Prison Fellowship® volunteers Suzzan Volk and her mother, Johanne.
Beautiful toys, clothing, and other handmade items produced by the female inmates were displayed on the back wall of the facility. The items had been created as Christmas gifts for children participating in Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree® program.
A few months prior, the Florida Department of Corrections approached Prison Fellowship to suggest the possibility of having inmates make toys for the Angel Tree program. There are real artisans in our prisons, we were told, and they wanted an opportunity to put their skills to good use. Hence, the Angel Tree toy program was launched. Male and female inmates in four different facilities were invited to make stuffed animals, wooden toys, clothing, and other items.
Broward Correctional Institution is the one female facility that took part in the program. Eleven inmates here, all seamstresses by trade, participated. Suzzan oversaw the Angel Tree gift-creating campaign at Broward.
When the program participants volunteered, they were given the opportunity to produce an additional gift that they would be able to present to their own family at an in-prison event. It was for this reason that we were gathered together.
The families of these participants were invited to come to the facility to enjoy a chicken dinner and to see the work produced by the inmates. They were not told ahead of time that they would be receiving a gift from their loved one, and many of the kids and caregivers were overwhelmed to receive it.
This event marked my last visit to the facility, which is being closed due to budgetary cuts. The women who participated in this Angel Tree program have already been transferred to the Homestead Correctional Institution. They plan to continue making toys for Angel Tree at their new home.
Broward Correctional Institution was the first prison that I ever visited and ministered in. I first started volunteering for Prison Fellowship 20 years ago right in that facility; I have passed through those prison gates hundreds of times.
As I walked to the parking lot for the last time, I was overwhelmed just thinking back on the opportunities I have had to serve God in this prison. I am grateful for the people I have known here and the lives I have seen changed, and I look forward to the chance to see God’s work continue in the other prisons in Florida.