More than 1,100 presents will find a home this Christmas through the Angel Tree program at Saint Bede Catholic Church.
In the longtime outreach program, members sign up to give at least two gifts — one less than $30 and the other less than $50 — to area children up to 18 years old. This year it reached about 250 families, with a total close to 550 children benefiting on Christmas morning.
It is a way of giving back for the season that pays dividends in both directions, said Shannon Woloszynowski, Saint Bede’s director of pastoral care and outreach.
“We know that it’s a blessing for the people who receive it, but it’s also a blessing for us, and to be able to illuminate the need for our parishioners,” Woloszynowski said.
While they learn about the hardship faced by members of their community, she said parishioners clamor to do their part. Not long after this year’s tree went up, Saint Bede ran out of the paper ornaments shaped as angles that lined it — each one with the wishes of a child or family — to assign to volunteers.
Last week the church packed the load of toys to hand out to the children, many of whom received more than the baseline two gifts.
But some parishioners were not satisfied to miss out on an angel, so the giving continues.
“We always get somebody that will come to us with a really sad story and say, ‘We didn’t get to sign up,’” Woloszynowski said, and the church does its best not to turn anyone away empty-handed.
Families sign up for the Angel Tree program through Saint Bede’s outreach center, which runs out of the old parish center on Harrison Avenue. Offering many social services like rent assistance and a food pantry, it is already tapped into the network of those in need, filling more than 3,500 requests for help last year.
To learn more about outreach at Saint Bede, visit its website.
