THOMASVILLE- Salvation Army of Thomasville employees had the chance to play Santa on Thursday morning, as they passed out more than 500 bags of goodies to children and seniors on their Angel Tree.

According to Sgt. Robyn Hickey, the Salvation Army provided for 580 children while supplying for 137 seniors this season. While the number of children provided for was less than last year’s 782 children, Hickey said it was in part due to the fact employees had to scramble so hard at the last minute in 2023. This year, they wanted to ensure every child got what was on their wishlist while taking any leftover donations to those on the waiting list.

Hickey assured that she, along with her team, are still supplying gifts and items to those families with emergencies, noting a family whose house just burned down.

“We will be helping them of course,” she said.

The waiting list also included families Hickey could truly tell were in need, so with the help of Woodhaven Furniture out of Coolidge, who delivered an additional 2,000 toys on Thursday, the Salvation Army was able to provide gifts for 55 children who were not initially on the Angel Tree.

PFG out of Cairo and Hurst Boiler also held toy and donation drives to help the Salvation Army provide for forgotten angels.

“Forgotten angels” are those kids whose names are not chosen on the tree before the cutoff. This year Hickey and her team bought for 82 forgotten angels with help from the goods provided by community partners and money raised through the Red Kettle campaign.

“The Red Kettles are our main campaign and it is focused around Christmas because this is when we need our main help,” she said. “But, the money collected also carries us throughout the entire year.”

Many corporations, such as the Flowers Corporation and Singletary Foundation make large donations to the Red Kettle Campaign to help fund the shopping and needs during the Season of Giving.

So far, the Red Kettle Campaign has raised approximately $20,000 more than last year. However, Hickey said it is still down from what was raised pre-COVID-19.

“I’m hopeful because we are $20,000 above what we were last year, but we are still not collecting what we were in 2017-2018,” she said. “I’m thankful, though.”

Last year, Hickey began paying individuals to ring the signature red bell during the holiday season. But, Hickey was excited to share more people volunteered this year and she has only had to pay five individuals to ring the bell, while others rang the bell in the spirit of competition or as a merry tradition.

“Whether it’s a Sunday school class or a company, I love to have a little friendly competition at the Kettle,” she said.

The money raised through the friendly competition helps parents have the opportunity to surprise their child on Christmas morning in ways they may not be able to ordinarily.

“It means everything for them (Salvation Army) to help me,” said one mother picking up her children’s gifts. “We have a lot of bills and we couldn’t really afford to do all this extravagant stuff that we would like to do. It means so much to us that there are people out there willing to help us put a smile on my children’s faces.”

This year, her kids will be smiling ear to ear as they both get their first bike.

“They just turned four and they both asked for a bike,” she said. “They see their older brother and want to join him, but they didn’t have the opportunity,” she said. “Now, we can take family pictures of them all riding bikes together.”

The mother is especially excited to see her son open his bike.

“My son is a little bit autistic and really loves everything with wheels, so he is going to freak out,” she said. “I see good things happening with him on Christmas morning.”

As she loaded her trunk to head toward home and hide the bikes, she thanked the community and Salvation Army one last time for making it possible to surprise her children, and so many others on Christmas morning.