The Salvation Army Angel Tree Program has been a tradition in the DFW Metroplex since 1984.
Angel Tree will serve more than 45,000 children in the DFW Metroplex this year.
Angel Trees are in 10 DFW area shopping malls and more than 250 churches, organizations and companies.
Volunteers from DFW Metroplex will contribute thousands of hours to the Salvation Army Angel Tree this season.
Learn how The Salvation Army Angel Tree program and its donors help millions of parents and children in need celebrate Christmas.
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The service you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
2 Corinthians 9:12 |
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Along with the familiar Red Kettles, the Angel Tree program is one of The Salvation Army's highest profile Christmas efforts. Angel Tree was created by The Salvation Army in 1979 by Majors Charles and Shirley White when they worked with a Lynchburg, Virginia shopping mall to provide clothing and toys for children at Christmas time.
The program got its name because the Whites identified the wishes of local children by writing their gift needs on Hallmark greeting cards that featured pictures of angels. They placed the cards on a Christmas tree at the mall to allow shoppers to select children to help. Thanks to the Whites, who were assigned by The Army to the Lynchburg area at the time, more than 700 children had a brighter Christmas that first year.
Three years later, when the Whites were transferred to Nashville, Tennessee, Angel Tree was launched in the Music City. WSM radio, which airs the Grand Ol' Opry, came on board that year as the first Angel Tree co-sponsor in the U.S.
Because of the on-air promotion on WSM in Nashville, as well as national publicity on CNN and the Larry King Show, news of Angel Tree spread across the country like wildfire.
The program includes Angel Trees in local shopping malls and on-site at area corporations, churches and organizations. The local communities have fully supported the Angel Tree program, making it possible to help numerous children and seniors each year.