Angel Tree collects donations to help needy families

Dec. 8—CHEBOYGAN — Edward Jones Investments in Cheboygan is currently collecting donations of unwrapped toys and gifts for children in need through an Angel Tree in the office's lobby.

"We started it this year," said Penny Treadway, Edward Jones financial branch office administrator.

Treadway said the financial advisors and office staff at the branch had started trying to take donations for 60 children in the area with the Angel Tree.

The Angel Tree was formerly through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, but was recently taken over by the Cheboygan Salvation Army. The Salvation Army then coordinates with the local department of health and human services to determine which children throughout the county would benefit the most from the donations of the gift.

Since the Angel Tree was first put up in the lobby of the Edward Jones office — 201 S. Main St., Suite 1, in Cheboygan — they have seen an outpouring of support and donations from the community.

"We have definitely done more than 60 kids," said Treadway. "We have a ton of stuff that people have brought in. We've had a really good response to it all."

The staff at Edward Jones will continue to collect donations of toys and other gifts for children in need throughout the community until Friday, Dec. 10. All donations will be picked up on that day, taken back to the Salvation Army and distributed to those in need in the community.

The way the Angel Tree works is people can come into the office, choose a paper angel off the tree and leave an unwrapped gift under the tree with the angel.

"We've had even people that haven't even come and picked an angel, they've just bought stuff and just dropped it off," said Treadway. "It has been really good. We were really surprised at the response that we've had and how generous people have been."

Treadway said this Angel Tree is something the office plans on continuing to do every year, going forward. This was the first year the office had decided to do something like this and the staff was kind of feeling out how well it was going to go.

"But we've had a really good response from it," she said.

Contact Features Writer Kortny Hahn at khahn1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @khahnCDT.

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