Touched by an angel

By: Johnathan Skidmore
Copy Layout Editor

The student chaplains of Monmouth College are sponsoring the angel tree program for another year. This program promotes giving Christmas gifts to less fortunate children. A Christmas tree is usually erected in the lobby of Stockdale Center and decorated with paper angels. Each angel represents a child without a gift. On the back of the angel, information such as the child’s grade or age and gender is written. A person, student or faculty, then selects an angel and purchases an appropriate gift, wraps it and then returns it to the student chaplains. These gifts are then given to the children in need, making their Christmas better.

In the fall of 1999, the student chaplains began the program after they realized that certain neighboring organizations, such as the Warren Achievement Center, were being neglected by other charities.

In the second year of the program, the student chaplains and Rev. Dr. B. Kathleen Fannin contacted Ed Giles, who works through Harding School and Jamieson Center coordinating gifts for local school children who would not receive Christmas gifts otherwise. Giles submitted a list of students from 4th through 6th graders. For the past seven years, the student chaplains have provided 100 angels to the community each year, representing 100 children receiving gifts that would have remained otherwise without. This year, the student chaplains have increased the angels from 100 to 110.

The angel tree will be available during lunch and dinnertime beginning Nov. 7 at dinnertime and will stay up until there are no more angels on the tree. Noticing the increase in interest on campus, Fannin wrote, “understanding that the faculty and staff might want to participate in this project but be unable to get over to Stockdale Center at those time to pick up an angel, the student chaplains will deliver angels to interested faculty and staff to facilitate their participation.” Fannin can be reached at her office through extension 2380.

Angels containing presents should be returned to Stockdale Center no later than Dec. 6. “We do ask that people act responsibly–if one takes an angel, please return it with a suitable present by the Dec. 6 deadline. This is a huge project that depends on the cooperation of everyone involved. It makes a great deal of difference to the people in our community who would otherwise have little to cheer them at Christmas,” said Fannin.