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The Copper Country Angel Mission and Salvation Army of Hancock partner for a second time in the winter. Earlier in the month, they partnered to create a larger space for the annual Coat the Copper Country Coat drive. But instead of delivering warmth to the Keweenaw Peninsula kids, this time, the groups are working together to ensure each kid has a joyful Christmas holiday.
It’s just great. We have, and our community wants to share. So our agencies are really, our big job is making it easy for them to do that. – Carol Plichta, Volunteer, Salvation Army-Bread of Life Center in Hancock
Last year we sponsored 237 children and I believe the 90-ish sponsors. So I wanted to make sure that people, my goal is to find different organizations or businesses, departments of the local businesses that would want to sponsor a family. So it spreads the cost of the items and yet it’s a team-working, giving event for the entire business or community organization. Renee Tuoriniemi, Volunteer, Copper Country Angel Mission
The separate programs will create a central registry so families can sign up their children for holiday gifts. The Angel Mission’s angel tree program will collect items at several locations and then gift both an item of need and something a child wants for the holiday.
The Salvation Army has several Christmas trees located at church sites in the region. At the tree, a volunteer can pick up a tag and purchase the gift before stowing it under the tree.
And we’ll set up a toy shop and we’ll get ready. So the kids that don’t have a sponsor, we’ll take their wants and we’ll shop for them and fill that red bag ourselves. So if you don’t want to sponsor a child, which is costly kind of, you could buy a gift from a toy shop, and that will help us out a lot. – Carol Plichta, Volunteer, Salvation Army-Bread of Life Center in Hancock
On either of our websites, the Salvation Army, Bread of Life Center in Hancock, or Copper Country Angel Mission in Calumet, the website has the sponsorship electronic form right there that they can fill out. There’s a paper form if they’d rather fill out a paper form. And they can tell us how many in a family, the age, approximate age groups, boys or girls, et cetera, what they want to be able to give this season. – Renee Tuoriniemi, Volunteer, Copper Country Angel Mission
“(We are) closing the online registration on November 30th. And after that point, they’ll have to come into our locations and fill out paper. – Rhoda Clark, Office Assistant
Families interested in registering their child for the 2024 Copper Country Angel Tree programs with the Copper Country Angel Mission and Salvation Army can find more details online. Individuals or groups in the area that want to get involved with this year’s programs should contact Rhoda from the Salvation Army and Renee from the Angel Mission to learn more. Find an electronic registration form here. Links include sponsor and family registration for the Angel Tree programs.
