By Scott Harvey
Commerce – It's another successful year for the Commerce Lil' Angel's project, which was able to receive clothing and toys for nearly 500 children within the Commerce ISD.
Local organizations and individuals combined to adopt roughly 25 percent of the children involved this year and purchase them gifts. The Commerce Kiwanis Club, who operates Commerce Lil' Angels, was able to use toy and monetary donations to shop for the rest.
The group provides the donations to the less fortunate children in need during the holidays.
"We were concerned this year that we would not have as many angels adopted due to the economy and that was the case. Only 120 out of 487 were adopted but through donations from our community and university we were able to provide a wonderful Christmas for all of our Lil Angels," said Becky Thompson.
Each year, about half of the Angels are adopted from the Angel Tree at Wal-Mart or by clubs and organizations.
Participating groups from on-campus include The Math Club, The Environmental Awareness Society, Residential Living and Learning and a monetary donation from the President's Office. In the community, it was Covidien, L-3, Rotary Club, Thalian Culture Club, and the United Methodist Church.
Some did independent toy drives, while others gave monetary donations. There were others that gave as well. L-3 gave approximately 600 items, while the university gave around 150 items all together.
The Commerce Kiwanis Club would like to thank all who participated in this year's event.