By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
It looks like Santa’s workshop at The Salvation Army Morristown Corps. The ground is covered with bags filled with all sorts of presents: a Barbie dream house for a little girl and a skateboard for a boy.
“We give the children what they wish for, for Christmas,” Captain Paul Valverde said.
The non-profit’s annual Angel Tree Program provides Christmas toys to 900 children in Morristown and the surrounding area.
This mom of two can’t wait to watch her little girls open the toys on Christmas Day.
“I’m not working right now,” Tamy Barquero said. “I have a baby and I was really sad because I was thinking I’m not going to be able to get a lot of toys.”
“The parent will give the child’s wish list,” Valverde said, “and this is very important because if little Jimmy loves football he doesn’t get a baseball bat for Christmas, he gets a football.”
Parents register for the program in September and must qualify as a low income family that is living in the area. The organization partners with more than 60 corporations.
“So what they do is they would adopt angels. We have angel tags for them and they would dissipate that information to their employees and the employees will grab a tag from a tree and go shopping for them and get their wish,” Valverde said.
“My husband and I go together and we’ll scoot around and pick out the toys that they want. It just makes you feel good,” volunteer Cindy Vrablik said.
“Particularly during the holidays you feel that need so much more intently, so what we do is we look at the season and we see those people who are in need throughout the year and we try to at least make them more comfortable,” board member Todd Galante said.
The Salvation Army Morristown Corps Angel Tree Program serves 300 families. There are more than 11,000 toys here, 6,000 pieces of clothing and more then 300 pairs of shoes.
The organization ensures they have extra toys on hand for those need.
“Our goal is no one walks away empty handed,” Valverde said.
“It’s so much help for the parents,” Orbim Romero said.
This father works two jobs and is so grateful for the gifts.
“The people that we serve are low income families categorized as working poor. These are children who’s parents have jobs and still can’t make ends meet. So, we want those children to enjoy and have the experience of unwrapping the gifts on Christmas Day,” Valverde said.
When asked if it makes him feel good to see the kids open the presents, Romero said, “Yeah. Yeah they are so excited.”
These parents seem just as excited to see the joy on their children’s faces on Christmas morning.