Offender’s Aid and Restoration (OAR) is sponsoring Project Christmas Angel, a toy drive to collect Christmas presents for the children of incarcerated prisoners in Arlington County Detention Facility as well as those who have been recently released and/or are OAR clients.
Heather Pritchett, acting director of development for OAR, said OAR is collecting new, unwrapped gifts for children ages newborn to 18 (no clothing or stuffed animals) and that gifts for teens are especially needed. OAR has set up an Amazon wish list to highlight some ideas for teen gifts. See the OAR website for additional information. Pritchett said donors can purchase items from the Amazon wish list and have the items shipped directly to the OAR office. In addition they accept gift cards to locations like Best Buy, Target, and Amazon with suggested denominations of $20-$25.
OAR has been collecting gifts for children of incarcerated parents for over 20 years but last year began doing their own outreach and collection. The goal is at least 400 gifts. In the past OAR has provided gifts to between 150-200 children and they like to give at least two gifts to each child.
Pritchett remembered some prisoner comments: “Thank you, OAR for helping my child feel better while I’m incarcerated. It’s good to know that when you feel alone, there is someone who can help.” “Thank you for sending my children gifts. I told them that I have a surprise for them and they are so excited.”
Eighteen donation boxes are located in non-profit, government and business, civic and faith organizations. For a full list of donation sites, check the OAR website at www.oaronline.org/oar-kicks-off-annual-toy-drive/ Collection for the toy drive takes place now through Nov. 15. A wrapping party is held on Dec. 16 where volunteers come together to wrap all of the gifts and attach a gift tag on each from the parent. The gifts are then hand-delivered to the children’s’ homes around the D.C. area by volunteers or mailed if the children live out of the area. “We do this in the hopes that the children know that even if their parent can’t be with them during the holidays, they are not forgotten,” Pritchett said.
OAR offers reentry services including transition assistance and employment counseling to nearly 800 post-release clients annually. The goal is to reunite families and to support the children of those being released. OAR’s goal is “Strengthening Community through Second Chances.”