With just a few days left until its holiday deadline, the local Salvation Army's annual Angel Tree program is in need of serious help from the community.

According to Corps Assistant Amy Tompkins, less than 50 percent of the more than 700 angels placed on the trees have been returned to the Salvation Army with their gifts.

“The original deadline for the program was Saturday, but because we still have so many angels out there we've decided to extend it to Tuesday,” said Tompkins. “We have 703 angels — that's 603 children and 100 area seniors — in the program, and we've received about 45 percent of them back. I've had a few people call and say they were going to bring the angels and gifts in over the weekend, but we're still a long way from making our goal.”

The annual program — which provides Christmas gifts for area low income children and seniors that might otherwise go without during the holiday season — got under way last month when Salvation Army officials began taking applications for the program.

Adopting a holiday angel is simple, according to Tompkins.

“They just take the Angel card from the tree and purchase Christmas gifts for that child or senior,” said Tompkins. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be what’s listed on the angel card. Once they purchase the items, they will attach the card to the gifts and bring them to our office, or drop them off where they got the card from. It’s very important that they tape or tie the card to the gift, however, so we can make sure it goes to the correct child.”

Tompkins said more than 100 angels were still on the trees late Friday afternoon.

“The shortfall we're seeing so far is a combination of angels that simply haven't been taken off the trees, and angels that have been taken but not returned with the gifts,” said Tompkins. “So it's really hard to know where we stand right now.”

Trees are located at the local Wal-Mart SuperCenter, Bealls Department Store and Maurice's clothing store, according to Salvation Army officials.

For more information on the Angel Tree program, call 267-8239 or stop by the Salvation Army office, located at 811 W Fifth Street.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it