Monessen Angel Trees to brighten the holidays
By Emily Bennett DiLullo
ebennett@yourmvi.com
The Monessen Police Department is teaming up with the Salvation Army’s Mon Valley Citadel and the Monessen Family Center to be the best neighbors possible this Christmas.
Angel trees have long been used as a way to garner community participation for Christmas, and this year, local children will hopefully receive more presents than ever before from local angels.
“With the Salvation Army and the Family Center, we’re partnering up to try to help with this program,” police Chief Jim Smith said. “I’m a firm believer that your police department needs to be involved in your community. We’re here to be good role models for the community and we’re here to help anyway we can, whether it’s providing someone a Christmas or getting somebody into rehab.”
Both the Salvation Army and Family Center have participated in the angel tree program in the past, along with several other holiday-centered outreaches, including free meals and other gift programs like Stuff-a-Bus.
Angel trees are a staple for the two organizations, and involve writing the gender, age and interests of a child on a paper ornament that is then hung on a Christmas tree. The trees are usually kept in public spaces like local businesses, churches, libraries and restaurants. This is the first year the police department has participated in the angel tree program.
“If you’re at a place that has high traffic, you can either take so many angels from us or you can hang a tree and see how many of your employees or patrons want to take angels,” Smith said.
The collaboration comes after the three organizations made the decision to work alongside each other’s missions in order to best serve the Monessen community.
“All of us deal with some of the most vulnerable families in our community,” community center supervisor Kim Egidi said. “We need to show them what it is like to work together.”
The three representatives hope this year’s angel tree efforts will provide Christmas for at least 75 children. Of those 75, they hope a large majority are teenagers.
“I didn’t realize this until I was talking to Captain Sue, but you have a lot of kids in their teens who don’t really get a Christmas because they’re parenting their siblings,” Smith said.
When Thwaite told him the Salvation Army needed presents for teenagers needed just as much –– if not more –– than young children, Smith said instead of duplicating services for the holidays, the collaboration would especially serve 13-17 year olds.
“So what we’ll be doing is working, the three of us together, to maximize the effort to get gifts to the most kids possible,” he said.
Thwaite said ages 3 to 12 are the typical angel tree ages, but the need for teen gifts is more substantial than it has been in the past. She said parents have a difficult time buying presents for teenagers, because they conclude most teen gifts are costly.
“When we think of a teenager, we think they want game systems and electronics, and we think it’s going to be several hundred dollars, so we’re afraid to touch that,” Thwaite said. “And that’s not necessarily true.”
Thwaite said the 20-30 teens who volunteer at the Salvation Army have given her more affordable and meaningful gift ideas –– things she said they themselves would be interested in having, like earbuds, clothes, bath and body products, fuzzy blankets and makeup.
“They’re still kids,” Smith said. “At 17, you’re still a kid, even if you don’t believe in Santa Claus anymore.”
While Thwaite said their largest need this Christmas are the teen gifts, the organization is also in need of teen involvement and volunteering. She said the Salvation Army will ask teens from various school districts to assist in wrapping gifts to be delivered to individuals in nursing homes this year.
Thwaite, Egidi and Smith hope this first collaboration blossoms into a forever relationship.
“It may start with handing someone a box of food or a Christmas gift, but when that family needs help, they’re going to come back,” Thwaite said. “If they trust me, and they see me working with the family center and the police department and other agencies, they can say that they can trust them, too.”
This sense of trust is paramount for police, who Smith said strive to be in the community center and schools on a daily and weekly basis in an effort to cultivate those strong and positive relationships.
Thwaite said the organizations unintentionally collaborate all the time but don’t even realize it, and cited an example of a time an officer took special care for a case that Thwaite was assisting a victim in. Both the officer and Thwaite were attending hearings and driving those involved.
“It took collaboration,” she said. “It took that officer and it took him following through and us giving that victim the support system. That’s how we collaborate. It’s just being good neighbors. We try very hard to be good neighbors.”
Angel tree sponsorship will be available until Dec. 16 and distribution will take place Dec. 19 and 20. Information for sponsorship is available at all three of the organizations.
“We as community leaders need to do the best job possible for the kids in this community,” Smith said. “Everybody deserves a good Christmas, so let’s give it to them.”