By Cindy Wolff
The Commercial Appeal
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — They are the children of murderers, rapists and thieves.
They move in with a remaining parent or relatives who already suffer financial problems. For many of the children, Dec. 25 is just another day. Their Santa is behind bars.
Since 1982, the Prison Fellowship Program has operated an Angel Tree service that has brought Christmas to 8.6 million children who have a parent in prison.
Prisoners sign up their children for the program. The angels are distributed to churches in the county where the inmates are housed.
This year, because one church that usually sponsored 500 angels didn’t participate and also because of a tough economy, there are still 570 angels out of 980 in Shelby County that haven’t been adopted, said Kimberly Alleyne, director of corporate communications for the nonprofit ministry. No adoption means no gifts.
Ten children were given gifts Sunday at the 250-member Bethel Church of God in Christ in Frayser. Some of the children weren’t there. The rest walked up one-by-one with a relative.
Some family members denied being in the prison ministry program. They said they didn’t have a relative in prison. They were embarrassed, one church member said.
Four-year-old Artavis Shaw received a sack as tall as him. He tried to carry it out after services but it scooted on the concrete. Someone carried it for him.
A row behind him, Bridgett Davis sat between her two children, 12-year-old Laneesha and 10-year-old Anthony. It was the first year for her kids to be in the program.
Her husband has been in prison for 2 1/2 years for cocaine possession. He has seven more left to serve.
“I’m going to let them open one today, but the rest will have to wait until Christmas,” Davis said. “I’m going to try to get them a few more things. It’s hard right now. I want them to have Christmas.”
A few rows in front of the Davis family, 16-year-old Darrius Jarrett was stoic and sad. He doesn’t know why his father is in prison. He knows he has been there four years and he gets out next year, Jarrett said.
His wish for Christmas: to live with the aunt he stays with currently.
Shelby County has one of the highest number of prisoners who ask for help, Alleyne said.
Nationwide, the ministry will help 390,000 children in the program, named on a paper angel hanging on a tree in one of the 8,000 churches.
A small church in Collierville, the Town Square Vineyard Church, has about 50 members and 50 angels. All are spoken for.
The church offered to take a tree of angels because a friend who works with the ministry asked pastor Gary Peil if he would.
“We went out on a limb with 50 angels because we only have about 50 church members, but they all rallied around the program,” Peil said.
“There are the victims of a crime, and then the children who had no part in their parent’s crime. They often go unnoticed and forgotten,” Alleyne said.
The Salvation Army is the only other organization with the copyrighted Christmas Angel Tree program and is by far the largest, serving 4,600 children in the Memphis area whose parents are too poor to provide gifts.
The local Salvation Army serves Shelby County and all surrounding counties, said Maj. Mark Woodcock, Salvation Army area commander.
They are the angels that typically appear in malls, offices and other locations around the city. The organization also collects gifts for 1,000 seniors.
All the angels are off the trees, but there are more than 200 children and 75 senior angels whose gifts were not turned in.
The Salvation Army will fill in the cracks, Woodcock said.
“We will buy some gifts for the ones that didn’t have their angel list returned so they have a gift at Christmas.”
Alleyne said the prison ministry program keeps its trees in churches because it’s a faith-based program.
“Our focus in the prisons are the transformation of prisoners, especially ones who are about to be returned to the community in hopes of reducing recidivism,” Alleyne said.
Copyright 2010 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.