Each year during the holidays, I feel the need to reach out to people that are not as fortunate as I am. Last year I decided to use my savvy shopping skills to start a donation box full of personal items to drop off at a woman’s shelter. Throughout the year I have been accumulating items, tossing them in the box, and waiting for this holiday season to brighten someone’s day.
My mom told me about a program her school participates in where you can “adopt” an angel. Each year, a secretary from her job takes a trip to the local post office, and chooses a few “angels” from the Salvation Army who are desperately in need of specific items. For example, two years ago my mom received a card with her angel’s request – a mother who had two sons that didn’t have winter clothes. Her class raised money, and my mom went out and purchased two winter coats, along with accessories. I love the idea of getting other children involved to open their eyes up to the real world. They often get lost in the Xbox games and handheld gaming devices, that they don’t realize how bad other children their age have it.
Now that jcpenney has teamed up with the Salvation Army, it makes it a lot easier for everyone to get involved in this wonderful program. My mommy group decided to take part and set a goal of adopting 10 angels. We have almost reached our goal! Since this is the first year I have participated in this program, I just want to tell you, reading through the requests of the angels is not easy. I wish I could adopt more this year, but financially, that is not possible. It really broke my heart to think that all a mom wanted for Christmas was to diaper her baby. Along with diapers, she needed clothing for her toddler. I knew immediately this was the right angel for me, as I cannot imagine not being able to clothe or diaper my baby. I instantly felt a connection and immediately sent out her gifts.
Want to know more about the program? The Angel Giving Tree Online Program allows customers to adopt an ‘angel’ (a needy child or senior) and then shop for gifts for their angel this holiday season. Every user can adopt their angel based on location, sex and age, and then choose items off the child/senior’s list to give them for the holidays. In collaboration with UPS, Angel Giving Tree gifts purchased through jcp.com can be shipped free of charge to a local Salvation Army collection center.
A new addition this year is the option for users to adopt angels in groups. So if you and a group of friends or perhaps your co-workers all want to join in to adopt a group of angels, you can! To learn more about the program and to adopt an angel yourself head here: http://jcp.com/angel
To kick things off this year and show how shoppers can contribute to an incremental $500,000 donation to The Salvation Army, jcpenney will be celebrating this awesome cause this year by donating $50 for each online Angel adopted on Thanksgiving Day throughjcp.com.
Additionally, a $25 donation will be made for each Foursquare check-in on Black Friday. The store that has the most check-ins on Black Friday will earn a special party on Dec. 17th. So encourage your friends to visit their local jcpenney on Black Friday to contribute to even more donations to The Salvation Army AND work together to get a party of your local jcpenney!
Please consider adopting an angel this year!