Arnold Air Force Base personnel provides gifts for 140 area children through AEDC Angel Tree program

  • Published
  • By Bradley Hicks
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  The gifts flowed into the Arnold Air Force Base Medical Aid Station so rapidly on the morning of Dec. 6 that the space remaining in the storage room used to house them not already claimed by bicycles, LEGO sets, action figures, board games and other toys was quickly filled.

As presents continued to roll in, additional space was needed. The hallway outside the storage room was temporarily lined with gifts until these were moved to an unused exam room. Like the storage area, that room also filled quickly.

The gift-filled rooms served as proof that this year’s AEDC Angel Tree program was once again a success and, thanks to the efforts of active-duty military, DOD civilians and contractors at Arnold AFB, Christmas will be a little brighter for 140 area children.

Each year, personnel across Arnold sponsor “angels” from a list and purchase gifts based on each angel’s wants, such as toys and electronics, and needs, like coats and shoes, as identified in the list. The angels are local children who may not have otherwise received Christmas gifts from family members due to their financial situation.

Master Sgt. Ricardo Hollingsworth, Health Services manager at the Arnold Medical Aid Station, coordinated this year’s program, including the arrangement to have the Medical Aid Station serve as the point for gift drop-offs. He said those at the base went “above and beyond” in providing toys for children this year.

“It’s really nice to see that people still care and that the holidays mean something,” he said.

Team AEDC has worked with the Center for Family Development in Shelbyville since the late 1990s. When the partnership began, there were around 30 children on the Angel Tree list provided to Arnold. As the number of people seeking support through the Center has increased, so has the number of children on the list.

Last year, there were 143 children on the list provided to Arnold. All received sponsorship.

Hollingsworth was especially pleased that this year’s Angel Tree was a success considering the quick turnaround needed to pull it off. When the original coordinator of this year’s effort had to take time off for personal reasons, Hollingsworth, who has been at Arnold for about four months, was tasked with leading the campaign. He was informed on Nov. 20 that he would be responsible for arranging a location for gift drop-offs and getting the word out about the Angel Tree. He had less than three weeks to do this, as the last day for drop-offs was originally set for Dec. 6.

Tech Sgt. Beverly Spademan, noncommissioned officer in charge of Medical Administration at the Arnold Medical Aid Station, also helped coordinate this year’s program. The day after Hollingsworth received the notice he would be in charge of this year’s program, Spademan began entering one-by-one the needs and wants of the angels provided to Arnold for placement on the AEDC Team site.

And while they admit response to this year’s AEDC Angel Tree was initially slow, Hollingsworth and Spademan said base personnel began to respond in a resounding fashion as word got out. Hollingsworth said on Dec. 3, just days before the drop-off deadline, 87 of the 140 children on the list provided to Arnold had been sponsored. By the time he left work the following day, that number had climbed to 117.

“Arnold has been really good about sponsoring the children the children,” Hollingsworth said. “This is my first year here, but from my experiences and what they’ve told me about last year, they had no problems sponsoring all the children last year. This year was a little slow because we kind of got it out a little bit later than we normally do, but I couldn’t have asked for a better turnout for, basically, a two-and-a-half week notification. One-hundred and forty kids were picked up before the deadline, which is amazing.”

Hollingsworth commended personnel across Arnold for once again seeing to it that every child received sponsorship and toys for Christmas.

“It’s great to see that even though we’re governed by different rules - we have military, we have DOD civilians, we have contractors, we all have different titles - something like this can bring us all together for one cause,” Hollingsworth said. “It’s really good to see we can rise together under one flag to get something like this done.”

Representatives with the Center for Family Development visited Arnold on Dec. 10 to collect the gifts dropped off by Arnold personnel. The Center is responsible for the wrapping and distribution of the presents.

The gifts provided through the Arnold AFB Angel Tree program will go to children in Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Giles, Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Moore, Perry and Wayne counties.

“It’s wonderful,” Spademan said of this year’s program. “It’s truly amazing, and it warms my heart that all these kids will have a Christmas. It was truly amazing that we were able to do that in such a short amount of time. Everyone sponsoring a child took time out of their day and their weekend to shop for a kid, and that’s a selfless act."