The closed Ritchie Western Wear buzzes with activity amidst the busy Christmas season.
About half a dozen volunteers weave through toys and clothes, filling bags with their Angel’s wish list.
The Salvation Army Angel Tree is well under way.
"Some of the children weren’t taken, so that’s what we’re filling today," volunteer Jane Comber said.
Comber has helped sort through the Angel Tree donations for the past three years. A retired teacher, she said she has seen first-hand the need for programs like the Angel Tree.
"I know there are lots of kids that don’t have the opportunity for toys, so it’s wonderful to provide some of those kids with toys that they wish for," she said.
This year, the program looked a little different for the Waco Area.
Major Jeff Miracle serves as the executive director for the McLennan County Salvation Army. He says that usually, another organization handles angel tree for the Waco area, so they aren’t able to have angel tree trees in the mall or Walmarts.
But that organization isn’t in Waco anymore, so the salvation Army stepped in to fill those gaps, adopting out 800 children.
"I can’t think of many things that are worse than a child waking up on Christmas morning to an empty tree," Miracle said.
Community members adopt an Angel from the local trees, shop for the items on their list and return them to the tree.
At the sorting site, volunteers take the bags of gifts and add missing items, like clothes or shoes.
"We try to make sure each kid gets a couple toys, one big toy and a couple small toys," Miracle said. "And we also as much as possible, try to make sure they get some of the necessities."
The extra clothes and toys come from community donors. But the toys also come from other non-profits around town, like Toys for Tots.
Marine Corps reserves, Toys for Tots operates across the country by collecting toys and distributing them to the community through local partnerships.
"Our jobs as marines is, yes, it’s the nation’s 911 service but at the same time we’re humanitarians," Gunnery Sargent Zachary Herevia said.
He oversees the Waco area Toys for Tots operation.
"Our big mission is just to make sure that every child have the support and thecy can you know understand the love, the care and hopefully grow the community together," Herevia said.
Along with the Salvation Army, Toys for Tots will donate their collected toys to 42 other local agencies. Herevia said this will allow them to help nearly 10,000 children.
The Salvation Army distributes gifts while children are in school. Major Jeff Miracle said this allows for the parents to decide how much or little their children know about where the presents came from.
"So possibly the kids never know where those gifts come from and we are fine with that," Miracle said. "They might have come from their parents or Santa."
At this year’s distribution on Wednesday, parents shared excitement for the gifts they received. Miracle remembers one special distribution stories from a few years ago.
"There was a bicycle a really unique bicycle that was sitting behind our volunteers and one of the volunteers overheard a lady say 'oh there’s a bike up there that my son wanted'," Miracle said.
When the mother got to the desk, the volunteer very nonchalantly handed the bike over.
"And the mother just broke down in tears because she couldn’t believe her child was able to get the bike they actually wanted," he said.
For both Major Miracle with the Salvation Army, and Sargent Herevia with Toys for Tots, these types of responses are what keep them energized year after year.
While the toy donation period is over for both organizations, they are still accepting cash donations to help fund next year’s drive.
