Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Corie Carr and her son, Colton Carr, both of Blacksburg, select an angel from the Salavation Army Angel Tree on Tuesday at Valley View mall in Roanoke. The Salvation Army in Roanoke received requests for gifts for an additional 600 children this year.

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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.

Shanna Flowers

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Jessica Lankford made her way to the Salvation Army's Angel Tree at Valley View Mall with hands busy juggling gifts and a heart moved by the spirit of generosity.

"It's just something that we do," said the Troutville mother of three small children. Her family has made strangers' Christmas wishes come true for seven years.

"It's very important. The amount we spend on the angel kids is what we spend on our kids," Lankford added.

Nancy Gray eased up to the tree with the unfamiliarity of a first-time Angel Tree donor.

"With everything like it is," the soft-spoken Stewartsville woman said, referring to the economy, "I wanted to help."

Lankford, Gray and others whom I met Tuesday afternoon at the Angel Tree reminded me that plenty of caring people are willing to share their blessings with the community's less fortunate at Christmas.

Their compassion was refreshing, heartwarming. More often than not in my job, I hear from the unforgiving who condemn the poor and paint them all with the same broad brush of derision.

The anonymous children on the Angel Tree -- 7-month-old Raul, 14-year-old Samantha, 2-year-old Kacey, 12-year-old Carl, 6-year-old Brittany -- are not there because of their doing.

Maybe a struggling, single mother was laid off. Or an unexpected financial emergency set back a father who was barely making ends meet. Events beyond the control of these parents forced them to rely on the kindness of strangers at Christmas.

And candidly, in other cases, there are moms and dads who wouldn't win any "Parent of the Year" trophies. They bring on hardship through recklessness, selfishness and poor decision-making and their children pay the price.

But whatever circumstances landed 3,208 children, ages birth to 14, on six Angel Trees across the area, I'm a firm believer that each one should be remembered this season.

"I hate the thought of a kid not having anything for Christmas," Margie Cundiff said as she delivered her gifts for a 5-year-old girl.

This Christmas will be tight for most people, even more so for the disadvantaged. Salvation Army officials in the Roanoke and New River valleys said Angel Tree requests for help were up this year.

New River Valley residents have responded, and all gift requests have been satisfied.

In Roanoke, the program received requests to help an additional 600 children this year. Trees in the Roanoke Valley have 500 unclaimed angels. This time last year, good Samaritans had adopted all but 150, said Jonathan Lee of the Salvation Army.

But it's not too late to indulge in the joy of giving. The Angel Tree program ends Monday. That gives you a few more days to fulfill Christmas wishes the way people such as Sandra Wertz have.

Wertz, a Salvation Army volunteer, has bought gifts for Angel Tree children for 10 years. But this year, the Roanoke woman homed in on the Angel Tree with the intensity of a missile on a target, looking for a 3- to 6-month-old girl to help.

Anticipating a great-granddaughter earlier this year, Wertz had stocked up on frilly, infant girl clothes. She was blessed with a great-grandson. An unknown baby girl will receive all those new outfits.

"I just see so many people in need," said Wertz, who said she has been blessed with life's comforts. "This is just a way to give back."

Last year, before their son was born, Corie Carr of Blacksburg and her husband bought a bicycle for a boy they selected from the Angel Tree.

Carr recalled the joy they felt and the fun they had giving the boy his Christmas wish.

"We were tricking his bike out," she said, laughing. "We pimped his ride. It was as much of a blessing for us."

Perusing the paper angels on the tree, Carr shared a family mantra:

" 'Do what you can where you are with what you have.' I can see 'Rachel' needs something," she said, glancing at a name on one of the angels, "and I can do something about it."

Shanna Flowers' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.