Salvation Army volunteers sort gifts for thousands of local chilldren
By: Morgan Thomas
Updated: December 13, 2012
Thousands of local children's' Christmas presents are being prepared for distribution this week.
The Salvation Army of Northwest Louisiana has taken over the old Sam's store with the toys donated by the community. Volunteers are filling bags with toys for their parents to pick-up next week.
The gifts come from angel tree participants, toys for tots, and toys bought by the Salvation Army to fill-in gaps.
"If you look back behind me you probably see people walking back and forth. We are filling angels who weren't adopted out. So, the volunteers are taking the bags, filling the bags full, tying it up and putting it on the spot," said Major Linda White, Salvation Army.
White says this area had about 4,000 children in their Angel Tree program.
"If you look around the room, you'll see all these white sports or yellow spots. These are numbers of children. Like, if you had 780 'A', 'B', and 'C' - that means there's three children in that family. So, there's a spot on the floor for each child," said White.
They expect to serve about 2,000 more during their emergency distribution on Thursday starting at 8 A.M.
