LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — With just over two weeks to go before Christmas, charitable organizations are working to make sure they can help as many people as possible.
The Salvation Army is working to make sure each child in their Angel Tree program gets their gifts. This year, there are a lot of them.
"We have 4,000 kids that we're helping this year, which is up 500 from last year," said Major Andy Miller. "Because of inflation, because different things have happened, they've gone from being donors to receivers. To me, to see their faces when they realize that after all those years that they were donating to the Salvation Army, this is what's happened to me. That is such an important thing for all of us,"
For those who can help, there's still plenty of opportunity.
"The problem is we still have probably somewhere between 800 and 900 tags left. Having said that, there's a couple of ways people can help," he said.
People who can buy a gift for a child, will need to do it by the end of the day Thursday, December 8. People can pick up a tag at the Salvation Army's location at Newtown and Main Street, buy the gifts, and drop them off at their Blazer Parkway facility.
For people who can't get it done by then, the money in those famous red kettles around town will help volunteers buy them between now and Christmas.
There are other ways you can help people over the holidays. Devine Carama's Believing in Forever organization hosts an annual coat drive. They received a record number of requests for coats this year — 5,000. They're about halfway to their goal. People can help the organization by visiting BelievingInForever.com. No matter how people choose to help this season, Miller said the reward is indescribable.
"To know that there's some kid out there who might be saying, 'We don't have any money. We're not going to have a Christmas' and all of a sudden mom comes home with everything…how do you describe that?" he said. "I just feel that Jesus is giving me an opportunity because he's blessed me so much to be a blessing to others,"
