Children in Las Vegas celebrated Christmas early this past weekend. Grapevine Fellowship Church hosted an Angel Tree® Christmas party for one hundred and thirty local children with incarcerated parents. They provided meals for the children, as well as gifts.
Photo Credit: Ben White
Angel Tree is an opportunity for communities to care for prisoners and their families. The Prison Fellowship® program serves incarcerated parents by strengthening and restoring prisoners’ relationships with their children children by providing gifts to the children in the name of their incarcerated parent.
“It shows that [the children] have people that love them and care,” volunteer Chapelle Belcher shared with NBC3 News in Las Vegas. “It’s really good for the kids.”
And while Angel Tree Christmas parties are occurring across the nation this month, there is still a need.
300 CHILDREN IN NEED
In Nebraska’s Douglas County, approximately 300 children might not receive Christmas presents this year due to a lack of sponsors in the area.
Prison Fellowship is looking for churches, non-profits, and individuals who can meet this need and others like it.
“You have a big event like Christmas, and the child doesn’t hear a thing from their parent, they think their parent doesn’t care about them or that they forgot about them and that may not be the case, often it is not the case,” Angel Tree area director Elizabeth Stanosheck shared with KETV Newswatch 7 in Omaha.
The news station featured Angel Tree on Sunday. The segment highlighted both the current need in Nebraska, and the local families whom Angel Tree has served.
Families like prisoner Edwin Miller’s. Miller is currently serving a sentence at the Omaha Correctional Center. He agrees that the separation is hard on families, especially children.
“It’s a struggle,” Miller told ABC7, “that we can’t be there for the ones that we love the most.”
PRISONERS YET PARENTS
For prisoner Sean Martinson, Angel Tree provided a chance to interact with his 4-year-old daughter Ariana, even from the inside. Martinson received pictures of his daughter opening her Angel Tree presents.
“It was pretty cool,” Martinson said, “pretty amazing to see her getting presents from her dad, knowing they’re from me.”
Strengthening parental relationships with their children is a factor in reducing recidivism for prisoners once they’re released.
“We understand one of the stabilizing factors of individuals getting out of prison and staying out of prison is that they have a connection to their family,” explained Stanosheck.
YOU CAN HELP
Church registration for Angel Tree ends soon, but there’s still time to sign up to help children in need! See our previous post on underserved counties in America. And visit our Angel Tree page to learn more about how you can be a part of helping children have a wonderful Christmas this year.