By Taylor Johnson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 28, 2012
Christmas is just around the corner, but for some families the holidays aren’t a cheerful and uplifting time. Many parents face financial challenges by trying to provide for their families while pursuing their education.
UFV’s Student Life’s Angel Tree program aims to help these families during the holiday season by bringing their children a gift from their wishlists.
Angel tags can be found hanging on Christmas trees all over the UFV Abbotsford campus, as well as in A building at CEP. Each angel represents a child and their gift wish. Students, faculty and staff are able pick an angel off the tree and help that child’s wish come true.
The Angel Tree program not only brings a gift to the child, but gives to the entire family. Last year, the program provided 50 families with food hampers and gift cards to local businesses. This was in addition to the 116 children who received a gift at Christmas.
Elicia Tournier, a third-year practicum student at UFV, works first-hand with the Angel Tree program. She explained that the point of the program is to help parents pursuing their education, with the many financial obstacles that arise during the holiday season. The main challenge of the holiday season is affording to give their children gifts at Christmas. With the help of this program, Tournier said that the sponsored child’s parent will receive the gift in time for Christmas morning.
Although the holidays might revolve a lot around gifts, the idea here is to give back and support those in need. The Angel Tree program takes the weight off a parent’s shoulder knowing that their child will still receive a gift Christmas morning, but also that they themselves will get a little extra help during the holiday season.
In 2010 the Angel Tree program held an “elf training day,” where families made crafts and participated in Christmas activities. That year the program was able to give 80 families (and 170 children) gifts. Of those, 43 families and 103 children were from the Chilliwack campus, while 37 families and 67 children were from the Abbotsford campus.
If you are interested in adopting an angel and giving a gift to a child this year, or simply want to help with the program, all the information you need is available from Student Life.
