Monday, December 10, 2007

In Honor of John

My dad, he is awesome, as most of you already know. He gives generously of his time and money whenever he can and at no time is he more giving than during the holidays. In honor of his generous spirit, two lucky children, ages 4 and 11, will be receiving books this year.

The bookstore I work in has an angel tree each year. Local non-profits provide our children's manager with the names, ages, and interests of children who for any number of reasons, might not be receiving much under the tree this year. That information, first name only of course, is then placed on an angel ornament and hung on the tree. Customers can then pick an angel off the tree and buy books appropriate for each child. After they buy their gifts they can choose to place a star on the tree in place of the angel. On each star is either the gift-buyer or the person in whose name they have purchased the gift. The gifts are later wrapped by volunteers, and store-employees, and delivered anonymously to the children. It is a wonderful program and the people who participate in it are great. A family came in today with 3 children who were very excited to get to pick out books for other kids. Their father had heard about it in the paper and they came downtown after school because they didn't want all the angels to be gone. In fact, we are almost out of them, truth be told.

I picked a 4 year old boy who loves superheros and an 11 year old girl who loves mysteries and adventures. I figured it was best to buy for children whose interests matched my own after all. Each will be receiving 4 books and a star now hangs on the tree with my father's name on it. Merry Christmas Dad. I couldn't think of a better gift to honor you.

3 comments:

jody said...

He is awesome, and this is a really nice project.

Kate C. said...

This is a great idea, in honor of a great guy. My local Barnes and Nobel has a similar project, and I have been thinking of participating, but I would rather do so with an independent bookstore. Now that classes are done, I'll look around--if not, in B&N.

Kym said...

It is a great program. It has been fun helping customers find books for the children on the tree. Other customers who are doing different trees elsewhere have also been coming in for books. Everyone talks about how no one reads anymore, but books seem to be on a lot of kid's wishlists. It is one thing for the bookstore tree but so many people picked names from another charity and said that books were on the top of the lists they received. I hope all the children are as happy as I always was to open up a stack of books on Christmas morning.