Will 750 kids go without a gift on Christmas? Salvation Army struggles to find donors

For more than 30 years, the Salvation Army has used its annual Angel Tree holiday gift drive to try to ensure every child in Lexington receives gifts on Christmas.

This year, that’s proving difficult.

With less than a day left in the holiday gift drive, the Salvation Army still had 750 “unadopted” children in Lexington on Saturday.

“Our goal is to make sure every child who has been signed up gets a present,” said Tom Hinzman the area coordinator for the Salvation Army in Central Kentucky.

For the past two years, they have.

The Salvation Army typically meets its donation goal two weeks before the deadline, Hinzman said. But this year, with an additional 600 children compared to last year, the charity group is struggling to get all its children “adopted.”

“We have to find new donors to step up and make those donations,” Hinzman said.

Often, the same people donate to the Salvation Army year after year, which makes getting donors for more than 4,000 children in the Lexington area a challenge. He also attributed the problem to a change of location in the mall and a long season of devastating natural disasters throughout the country.

“We’re a very giving community and it could be that many people are just given out,” Hinzman said.

He said those factors, plus the higher number of children in need, could be why the group hasn’t met its goal yet.

“I think all that together just makes it more difficult,” Hinzman said.

Hinzman said the Salvation Army won’t be able to extend the deadline for donations, which ends at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 10.

The Angel Tree program is located at the main entrance of the Fayette Mall, near the P.F. Chang’s restaurant. Normally the Angel Tree program asks families to “adopt” a child by purchasing gifts off a list of items the child wants and needs, but Hinzman said the Salvation Army can also accept checks, credit cards and new toys, even if families did not pick a specific name.

“We’ve been encouraging people, even if they don’t have time to pick up an Angel Tree tag, to buy a gift and we’ll match it with the right child,” Hinzman said.

Toys can be taken to the Salvation Army Christmas Distribution site at 1801 Alexandria Dr. Suite 144 from 10-8 on Monday through Saturday.

This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Will 750 kids go without a gift on Christmas? Salvation Army struggles to find donors."