The annual Angel Trees gift-giving program is up and running at the Highlands Emergency Council this year, which Emergency Council Vice President Marie Johnson and Ugly Dog Public House manager Kellye Wert say will allow more local kids to get more donated gifts.
However, some of those putting on the drive worry that it’s not gaining as much traction this year as it has in the past.
A collective “village” of local businesses and institutions, including the Ugly Dog, the Presbyterian Church, both Rotary locations, First Bank and First Citizens Bank, coordinate every year to set up the trees and take donations. While previously they collected gift donations for the Salvation Army, this year they decided to put it towards the Emergency Council instead, feeling it was more localized.
“The Salvation Army was going to Waynesville, Sylva, about five or six different towns,” Wert said. “This is just Highlands.”
Paper ornaments hang on the Angel Trees bearing the age and gender of each child. Those feeling of a generous spirit can take one and buy appropriate presents to bring to the Ugly Dog, unwrapped, which will be delivered to the kids.
The tree at the Ugly Dog, though, has not seen the level of attention it had for the previous three years they’ve run the program. On Tuesday morning, Dec. 3, there were many ornaments still left on the tree after being set up for several weeks now.
“The previous few years, they would’ve all been gone by now,” Wert said.
Wert said she didn’t have an answer for why the Angel Trees were getting less attention this year. She said one reason could be that they had stopped listing kids’ names on the ornaments. Instead, they now just feature a child’s age and gender.
Ugly Dog owner Kay Craig said people feeling up to it should stop by the restaurant at 294 South 4th Street in town, grab one of the ornaments and go out to buy a present for a kid.
“I know it’s just been Thanksgiving,” she said. “People might not be ready for Christmas yet. But we want people to come take one.”
Wert said the Angel Trees were a way of helping those in the area who didn’t have enough resources to give their kids enough presents for the holiday.
“People in Highlands don’t realize there is poverty here,” she said. “They don’t really see that a lot of families need help.”
Johnson said the deadline to get Angel Tree gifts back to the various businesses is Dec. 15.
She said there was also the option to sponsor a whole family with gifts. People interested in that can come to the Emergency Council at their building at 71 Poplar Street, where they keep a list of families who have said they’re in need.
Johnson said she thought there was a real benefit to offering the Angel Trees.
“It’s important because children are getting stuff when they might not normally get a lot for Christmas,” she said. “Santa Claus is good. It takes the burden off the parents spending every dime on rent. Without the people, we cannot make this work. The churches, the banks, the whole village makes this work.”