By 
Two Christmas trees at Town Crier bookstore are up and ready for you to help a local child.
First, there’s the mitten tree and donations are being accepted for that – mittens, stocking caps, gloves, scarves. Donations will be distributed by the Salvation Army.
The second tree is for CASA kids, kids who are in the court system through no fault of their own. They may be victims of child abuse or another crime, or their parents may have gotten into trouble with the law and so the children are in the system that way. A book is a gift the child can read and keep, and they will know that some kind soul out there cares about them. When I stopped in at Town Crier the other day, there were 112 kids represented on the tree, and seven of them had had a gift picked out for them. So, plenty of tags on the tree to go around. Plenty of kids in need.
One of my favorite reads this past year was “Moon Over Manifest,” by Clare Vanderpool of Wichita. The book won the prestigious Newberry Award as well as the prestigious 2011 Kansas Notable Book Award. It’s a great novel for Young Adults, so I picked a tag that said “Girl, 13” to receive the book this Christmas. If you’d like to help out, drop by Town Crier, 716 Commercial.
Other Angel Trees are around town and they also are accepting gifts for about 700 children in the area.
From The Gazette: “Angel Trees are located at the following businesses: Bluestem, Emporia State Bank (both locations), ESU Memorial Union, ESU Credit Union, Flint Hills Lanes, Pizza Ranch and Walmart.”
For more information, see the story: Angel Trees Are Ready.