Preparations underway at joy center for Salvation Army’s Angel Tree distribution day

Volunteers dedicate time to good cause

ORLANDO, Fla. – Volunteers are putting the final touches to Santa’s workshop at the Salvation Army’s joy center.

Volunteers from all over Central Florida are working around the clock to make sure every single toy donated to the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program is good to go.

“So in the Salvation Army, Christmas starts in July. So we start contacting corporations to see if they’ll adopt children for our Angel Tree program,” Capt. Jessie Chapman said.

From organizing hundreds of bags to building bicycles, Chapman says it takes about 75 volunteers a day to sort out everything and label each bag with a child’s name and age.

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"This is why we have clear bags, we have labels that go on the inside so they can't fall off and as soon as something comes in we have our volunteers that are here that help us to place it on the floor where it goes with that family," Chapman said.

Lydia Omosebi is a 16-year-old volunteer. She does online schooling so she’s been able to help out the past eight days at the joy center.

“It’s good that people give their time to do these things and it’s a lot of work, which is good,” she said.

We also got to see a room full of electronics and home essentials for 400 seniors who are Angel Tree recipients as well.

“They are just thankful and so it’s always nice that whenever you see someone that has that gratitude for the community ... because it’s not just the Salvation Army, it’s a whole community coming together to help provide Christmas,” Chapman said.

Angel Tree Distribution Day will take place Tuesday starting at 9 a.m.


About the Author:

Ezzy Castro is a multimedia journalist on News 6's morning team who has a passion for telling the stories of the people in the Central Florida community. Ezzy worked at WFOR CBS4 in South Florida and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, where she covered Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Being from Miami, Ezzy loves Cuban coffee and croquetas!

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