Empower Brokerage Gives Back With Angel Tree Program.
Empower Brokerage is proud to participate in this year’s Salvation Army Angel Tree initiative. The Angel Tree program provides items for underprivileged children and seniors with special needs. Shopping malls, schools, churches, corporations, other organizations, and volunteers all come together to help these families in need. Families apply for assistance during Christmas through the Social Services program at The Salvation Army. It is estimated that the Angel Program will serve more than 45,000 children in DFW alone this year.
Empower Brokerage employees generously helped to fulfill Christmas wishes by adopting 11 Angels from the Dallas/Fort Worth community. Such compassion proves that people are in a charitable spirit this time of year and want to help families struggling financially. Empower Brokerage and the Angel Tree Initiative brought that charitable spirit to light within their employees. The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program is a testament to the power of people coming together to help their neighbors in need.
Marketing Director, William Bronson, says “Hopefully, our campaign will encourage other companies to step out of their busy schedules long enough to allow this kind of initiative. It helps the staff come together to support a great cause benefiting others. This fun event brought us closer together and everyone felt great about giving.”
Angel Tree History
The story of the Angel Tree program began in 1979. Charles and Shirley White were in charge of ringing the Red Kettle bell at a mall in Lynchburg, Virginia. The mall asked if they could do something that involved the Christmas tree. An idea struck after spotting greeting cards with angels on them. The Whites cut the cards into ornaments, wrote questions on the cards asking clothing sizes and gift wishes and then hung them on the tree. Shoppers began taking the makeshift ornaments off the tree and returning with the gifts. And just like that the Angel Tree program was born! Thanks to the Whites more than 700 children in Lynchburg had a brighter Christmas that first year. Since then, the program has expanded to more states and helps thousands of families all over the United States each year. Along with the familiar Red Kettles, the Angel Tree program is one of The Salvation Army’s highest profile Christmas efforts.
No Cash, No Problem
Speaking of Red Kettles, did you know bell ringers this year can now accept donations from smartphones? It’s true. Since Americans are carrying cash less and less, The Salvation Army came up with a quick and easy solution. Donors tap their phone on a red kettle tag, opening a donation form in seconds. Phones that aren’t compatible with contactless payment systems can photograph a QR code, opening a similar donation form. Mobile donations are sent to the Salvation Army chapter nearest to the donor’s billing zip code.
Funds from the red kettle donations are extremely important to the Salvation Army as it helps to fund their housing, food and social programs throughout the entire year. The Salvation Army hopes these new mobile options will help make up for donations lost because people don’t have cash on hand to drop in the kettle.
To read more about the great history of the Salvation Army and where it came from check out our article here.
