ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – Christmastime is the season of giving. One way to do that is by taking a tag off of an Angel Tree and buying presents for a child who might not otherwise receive any.
The Angel Tree inside the main entrance of the Delta Plaza Mall is sponsored by Tri-County Safe Harbor and the Salvation Army.
“Each tag has information about a child between the ages of birth to 18 years,” explained Tri-County Safe Harbor employee Tara Clark. “The information on the actual angels is the age, their sizes, and then some wish items. We try to just go with two wish items that the child might want.”
When Angels are not taken, it is up to organizations like Tri-County Safe Harbor to fulfill those wishes.
“Every year, usually it’s out of our general funds because we are grant-funded,” Clark said. “It’s just been really disheartening that our funding has been severely cut. It just changed a lot of things for us this year as an agency.”
The Delta Plaza Mall is home to several stores with outside entrances. Right now, the main mall entrance only has one store, Maurice’s, and construction is underway on space for a new business. So far this season, Clark says the Angel Tree wasn’t receiving the same foot traffic as some others.
“The fear was so overwhelming when I saw this tree and it hadn’t been touched since the last person put the angels on,” she said.
Clark took to Facebook to let people know about the tree. In less than 24 hours, the public was jumping at the chance to support it. Clark started getting messages from strangers looking to help, and good Samaritans began stopping by to take tags.
“I am so incredibly touched by this,” said Clark. “I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. I just was basically venting about not being able to help myself and asking the community to come together.”
Once an Angel Tree child’s requests have been met, their tag and unwrapped gifts can be dropped off in the corresponding shopping cart next to the tree. Tri-County Safe Harbor Angel Tree tags and gifts can also be taken to the shelter at 905 1st Avenue South, which is staffed 24 hours a day.
“It just really raises awareness about what we do,” Clark said. “We have 15 beds, and they are always full. We have children right now as well, so we have a lot of need for community resources at this point. We wouldn’t be able to even help anybody if we didn’t have the community’s support, so that’s so integral.”
Now, Clark says that same community is ensuring local children will have a merry Christmas.
“It is so important that as a community, we support those who don’t have what maybe we do,” she said. “It means that there’s a child out there who could be touched by what you did, unknowingly. That’s not for them to know; it’s just for them to understand that somebody cared enough to make that happen.”
Tri-County Safe Harbor asks that Angel Tree tags and gifts be returned by December 15. More information about Tri-County Safe Harbor is available at safe3c.com. The agency offers a 24/7 helpline at (906) 789-1166.
