AEDC supports Angel Tree effort

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Disadvantaged mid-state children will once again benefit from the generosity of Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) employees this holiday season.

The AEDC Angel Tree contains the names of 179 children, all of whom have already been "adopted" by AEDC employees. An additional 15 children were added to the original list of 164 names, according Janet Feller, an Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) programmer analyst in the wind tunnels and member of the ATA Employee and Community Activity Committee (E&CAC), who is coordinating the Angel Tree program this year. Dec. 9 is the deadline to turn in the gifts.

Feller said she is very pleased with the base-wide response to the program.

"There are approximately 135 AEDC team members participating," she said. "Several employees chose more than one child, and I think that there is one group that participates but only one person signs the sponsor sheet."

The list contains some of the items the children want or need, but age-appropriate gifts and warm clothes are always welcome. The children range from newborns to age 17.

Feller said the children are from the Healthy Families Program and the South Central Relative Caregiver Program. The Angel Tree gifts may be the only ones some of the children will receive this Christmas.

Feller said she is thankful for the generosity of her AEDC coworkers.

"I get real excited when I see all the gifts that are brought in," she said. "We have a very giving community here on base, and I am privileged to be part of that and to get to see it. I think that's really neat."

The Healthy Families Program serves Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Moore and Rutherford counties. Healthy Families/Healthy Start helps first-time parents adjust to their new and demanding role, providing skills necessary to reduce family stress and improve family function. Educational services promote parent/child attachment, child development and follow-up for child wellness and immunizations. Healthy Families is an intensive home visitation program.

The South Central Relative Caregiver Program serves Bedford, Coffee, Giles, Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Moore, Perry and Wayne counties. The program provides support services to relative caregivers and their related minor children in order to divert children from state custody. The supportive services do not include any monetary stipends to families but instead offer case management, support groups, educational workshops, enrichment activities, material assistance and a comprehensive system of information and referral designed to stabilize the family. The South Central Relative Caregiver Program is a partnership with the Tennessee Department of Children's Services.

For more information about the AEDC Angel Tree program or to drop off gifts, call Janet Feller at 454-5108 or Patricia Winters at 454-5753.