JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Thousands of toys, clothing and other items were distributed to parents and guardians on Wednesday so their children can open a gift this Christmas.
It is all part of the Salvation Army of Northeast Florida’s annual “Angel Tree” program to help make Christmas special for children in the area.
Madeline Sanchez called this moment a blessing as she picked up gifts an anonymous donor bought for her 9-year-old son, Deylian, who has Autism.
“It is a blessing because I have been raising him by myself since he was born,” she said.
Sanchez is among the more than 1,500 parents who got toys, bikes, and clothes for their kids after being approved for the Salvation Army of Northeast Florida’s annual Angel Tree Program. It helps those in tough financial times have a special holiday season.
To help make the magic happen inside the former Bealls department store in the Regency area were volunteers like Rosalind Harris, who’s been doing this for about five years.
Laura Glanton and her crew from USAble Life also rolled up their sleeves and were busy helping. This was Glanton’s first time volunteering to pass out the toys.
“I just enjoy giving back to the community,” Harris said. “Doing things that make little kids happy, seeing their smiles on their faces when they come up and pick up their packages. It brings me joy. Why not this? This is something that I enjoy doing, just giving eight hours of my time, five hours of my time.”
“To be a part of the community,” Glanton said of why she signed up as a volunteer. “To show that we care and we are a part of this community.”
It was not just toys. Every single kid received a stuffed animal that were all donated by the Jacksonville Icemen.
Salvation Army of Northeast Florida has shown its generosity for more than a century.
But Major Keath Biggers explained this year, the organization was also on the receiving end of getting help.
A lack of donations at the beginning of 2025 led the Salvation Army to start a campaign to raise $1 million. It also had to dip into its own emergency funding to avoid having to shut down critical programs, including emergency and transitional housing, rent and utility assistance, and providing three meals a day.
“It is a combination of the community coming together to enable the Salvation Army to provide Christmas for families in need throughout Jacksonville as well as Northeast Florida,” Biggers said.
But a surge in community support in the second half of the year led to raising $1.1 million and receiving a $300,000 grant for the Salvation Army of Northeast Florida to stretch over the next three years.
“It is just a blessing for us to be able to look at where we have come to and where we are today,” Biggers said. “Not because of anything necessarily that I have done, but because of the community, our supporters, our friends and our partners, our board, our women auxiliary echelon have come together and rallied around us in the needs for the Salvation Army.”
It all led to experiences like what Sanchez had a week before Christmas.
“[My son] is going to be happy,” she said. “He has been through a lot of situations, health issues. But he is going to be really happy and enjoy it.”
In the past, the distribution was held at the old JCPenney at the mall. But this year, the distribution was held at what used to be the Bealls department store on Commerce Center Drive in the Regency neighborhood.
According to the Salvation Army, approximately 2,000 children were registered to participate in this year’s distribution.
Generous donors and businesses from the community provided toys, clothing, and other items to distribute to parents and guardians. Those who want to help usually take a kid’s wishlist and buy the items on that list.
Then they bring those purchased items to the Salvation Army, which sorts them and gets them in order to be given to the child’s parent or guardian on distribution day.