Casa of Lexington is a nonprofit that provides trained volunteer advocates for abused or neglected children in the family court system.

As you can imagine, these children are often haven't received the Christmas they deserve.

That's where the Angel Tree program comes in.

So.

So the Angel Tree is an opportunity to select a child that has an active family court case and to purchase some of their needs, whether that soft underwear, winter coat, as well as some of their wishes for the holiday season.

We are nearing almost 2500 children that have been collectively on the seven counties that we serve trees over the years.

This year we have just under 400 children amongst the seven trees, many of which have already been selected.

There are some still available, and maybe if somebody is watching and doesn't love going out shopping this time of year, there's also an Amazon wish list.

We work early.

You know, it's early November, mid-November, and we have hosted seven Angel Tree kickoffs.

The reason we do that is to give community members enough time to go out and select and shop for the children.

And we ask that all gifts unwrapped be returned by November 27th.

And so once everything comes into the office, why we ask them to be unwrapped.

We make sure that sibling sets get roughly the same amount of items.

And that's where that Amazon wish list comes.

It very helpful if we need to supplement, supplement and add to a child's list, we can use those items and any extra items can be used throughout the year when we get a new child or if it's a child's birthday to be used as a gift that the volunteer could give them.

I think pasta is one of the most impactful volunteer activities somebody can do, because not only are you that constant for a child that maybe has never had a consistent, positive role model in their life, but in some cases our Casavant Tears literally saved children's lives or changed them for the better.

So pasta as a whole, I think is an amazing thing.

But the Casa Angel tree is one of the happiest things we get to do every year.

So you can imagine at CASA, we see some really tough sex sexual abuse of very young children, horrific physical abuse.

Thankfully, no child should ever have to be a part of, and it's due to no fault of their own.

But the Angel Tree is a happy time because children get to ask for some of their needs.

I mean, we have teenagers routinely asking for a winter coat and you think how many teenagers that are in their home of origin asking for a coat for Christmas?

But we also get to allow these children to dream and make wishes of things they never thought they could have, maybe a bicycle or a Barbie doll or maybe it is that particular game they're hopeful to have for some of our older youth.

They might be asking for sheets or pots and pans because they're going to be transitioning to independent living and maybe get their first apartment.

And they don't have these things and they may not have people in their life that can help them provide these things.

So I think Angel Tree is a very impactful but happy way for our community and the Commonwealth to come together and say, we believe in our children and we want to do what we can to give them the best foot forward for their next move.

Yeah, absolutely.

If you'd like to participate in the Angel Tree program, you can donate from the Amazon wish list on the Castle website or you can become a CASA volunteer.

The next training session is January 9th of 2020 for.