Each year, Prison Fellowship recognizes volunteers and employees who have made a difference in the lives of prisoners and their families by presenting them with the Shining Star Award. In the coming weeks, the blog will highlight some of the 2012 Shining Star recipients and their work.
“There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home; there’s no place like home. …” the familiar chant from Dorothy in Kansas in the Wizard of Oz classic film is likely the sentiment of another Dorothy in Kansas—but for different reasons.
Meet Dorothy Steele. Through her years volunteering with Angel Tree, she’s made home life better for hundreds of children. As a faithful donor and Angel Tree church coordinator at Countryside Christian Church in Mission, Kansas, Dorothy started helping with Angel Tree near its beginning in 1982 from a challenge by Mary Kay Beard, the program’s founder.
A former teacher, Dorothy’s love for children leads her to recruit others in her church to participate in Angel Tree. Lisa Kelley, a former PF staff member in Kansas said if all the children didn’t get placed through her Sunday school class, she would purchase gifts herself. Dorothy would sit at the phone for hours calling caregivers to ensure the child was at the correct address shown on the Angel Tree form.
“I worked with Angel Tree as long as I can remember,” says Dorothy. “You do these things because you love the Lord and you want to help people.”
Dorothy’s thorough planning makes it easier for Angel Tree volunteers. “I tried to take away any headaches—any possibility of things goofing up,” she says. “And the volunteers enjoyed it; they really did. At the end of delivering gifts, our Sunday school class said, ‘Now that’s what made Christmas!’”
Earlier this year, Prison Fellowship Ministries CEO Jim Liske visited Dorothy in Kansas. During their conversation, she urged him to make sure PF stayed on course, evangelizing and discipling those behind bars and training mentors outside. After his visit, Jim wrote in a staff email, “On behalf of all of us, I thank her for all she has done and assured her she was vital to all that is happening at Prison Fellowship Ministries.”
After the hundreds of hours she’s invested, she still says, “I wish I could do more.”
Instead of the Dorothy in the movies clicking her red ruby slippers, this Dorothy looks to the Lord, offering up prayers so children can feel—at least during Christmas—like “there’s no place like home.”