How Charlotte Observer readers helped ‘provide joy’ again for kids around the holidays

By Joe Marusak
The Charlotte Observer

Charlotte Observer readers donated nearly $120,000 to the paper’s Empty Stocking Fund this holiday season to help local families in need, Salvation Army officials said this week. The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte’s Angel Tree program matches children in need with anonymous donors who buy them presents for Christmas, and provides senior citizens with gifts. In cases where donors didn’t step up, Charlotte Observer readers covered the expense by giving to the Empty Stocking Fund.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article298185228.html#storylink=cpy

Pamela Curry with her sons, 9-year-old Elisha and Elian, 5. The Charlotte mom and former CMS bus driver is grateful that her boys will get Christmas presents thanks to the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. Observer readers support that program through donations to the Empty Stocking Fund.
Courtesy Pamela Curry

A veteran CMS bus driver battles cancer but ensures her kids will find Christmas joy

By Liz Rothaus Bertrand
Correspondent
The Charlotte Observer

For Charlotte resident Pamela Curry and her sons, 9-year-old Elisha and 5-year-old Elian, the holidays used to look very different.

On Christmas Eve, Curry and her mom would stay up late into the night, chatting and wrapping presents. They’d decorate the house, toast one another — Curry with coffee and her mom with ginger ale — and give a prayer of thanks that they could celebrate Christmas together.

Curry would keep wrapping while her mom prepared a feast for the next day. “That was the best food in the world,” she told The Charlotte Observer, reminiscing about the annual meal that included turkey, macaroni salad, collard greens and Curry’s favorite — homemade cornbread and turkey giblet dressing.

But about three years ago, everything changed.

In the span of a few months, Curry lost her oldest son’s father to a heart attack and her beloved mother fell gravely ill. Ten days after burying her mother, Curry was diagnosed with HER2 metastatic breast cancer. She was unable to return to her longtime job as a bus driver for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

And with money so tight, she also worried about her boys and the upcoming holidays. There have been a couple years, she said, where her kids woke up on Christmas Day and there was nothing under the tree. “And I told them we’ll celebrate Christmas later when I get some money,” she said.

That’s where The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte’s annual Angel Tree program comes in.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/helping-others/empty-stocking-fund/article297223899.html#storylink=cpy

During holiday season, the Mitchell family has a tradition of helping out with special meals for residents in the senior living community where Mitchell volunteers. Courtesy of Brandis Mitchell
Courtesy of Brandis Mitchell

Charlotte Mom grateful she won't need to choose between rent or kids' holiday gifts now

By Liz Rothaus Bertrand
Correspondent
The Charlotte Observer

Volunteering and giving back to the community are values that Charlotte resident Brandis Mitchell lives by.

“I’ve been doing this since I was a little girl,” Mitchell said. “It’s just something that she … instilled and I kept it going.”

The Portland, Oregon, native grew up in Ohio, and started volunteering as a child alongside her grandmother. She served meals while her grandmother cooked and cleaned for the local Salvation Army’s soup kitchen. Mitchell moved to Charlotte nine years ago to help care for her grandfather. She was also confronting her own challenges at the time, including a domestic violence situation and homelessness.

Since her grandfather’s passing, Mitchell has been on her own in Charlotte, raising her two daughters — Maudessia, 14, and Avayah, 12 — and her 11-year old son, Robert.

She recently transitioned into a new job, cleaning apartments and AirBNBs. The position allows Mitchell to work during her children’s school day and the flexibility to better care for her son, who has severe asthma, and sometimes has to miss weeks of school when he’s ill.

But money is tight so Mitchell has turned to a familiar source for help — The Salvation Army.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/helping-others/empty-stocking-fund/article296864719.html#storylink=cpy

Major Jason Burns of The Salvation Army organizes toys for The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte's annual Angel Tree program in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, November 14, 2024.
Khadejah Nikouyeh [email protected]

Holiday donations by Charlotte Observer readers fuel Empty Stocking Fund. How to help

By Joe Marusak
The Charlotte Observer

It happens countless times around the holidays, Salvation Army Major Jason Burns said: A well-dressed person approaches him with a story. “ ‘When I was 10 years old, The Salvation Army provided toys for Christmas when my family had troubles,’ ” Burns said. “Or, ‘I got a bike for Christmas from The Salvation Army at Christmas, and it was an amazing thing.’ ”

“Now, I don’t know if that bike or those toys changed their trajectory. But the reality is, it’s a memory that sticks with people for a long time,” Burns told The Charlotte Observer in a recent interview. “You never know where a dollar will go and the life that it will change.” Burns and his wife, Bethany, are the area commanders of The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte.

Thousands of Charlotte-area children will receive gifts of clothes and toys under the Christmas tree again this year, thanks to contributors to The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte’s annual Angel Tree program. In cases where donors don’t step up, Charlotte Observer readers cover the expense by giving to the Empty Stocking Fund, which the Observer has sponsored since about 1920.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/helping-others/empty-stocking-fund/article294489299.html#storylink=cpy