THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512170150
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: PAUL SOUTH
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
If we believed only the marvelous painters of the Renaissance, angels would all wear white gowns and white wings, hovering around heaven with countenances shining as brightly as the midday sun.
But I submit that some angels live here among us. Some have silver hair and glasses, and come from now-defunct places like Buffalo City, a community where bootleggers and lumberjacks were as common as cherubim and seraphim in the great beyond.
Angels like 65-year-old Julia Haywood.
Haywood and a group of volunteers and local businesses are hard at work, trying to make sure that no child in Dare County goes without a visit from Santa this Christmas. Through the Outer Banks Women's Club's Angel Tree Project, 354 needy children from 176 families will have gifts this holiday season.
Haywood grew up in Buffalo City - ``the logger and liquor-still place,'' she says - and knows what it's like to go through hard times. The Angel Tree Project was her brainchild, born eight years ago.
Now the Outer Banks Women's Club works with Dare County Social Services to help Santa find kids in need.
``I have five kids,'' she says. ``And there were times that we didn't have much under the tree. I've known some hard times. I just don't want to see any child do without for Christmas.''
Haywood is not alone. Along with the number of businesses who have pitched in to help with bicycles and toys and financial help, the young among us have also stepped forward.
``At Manteo Middle School, instead of swapping names, the kids picked out angels,'' said Gwen White of the Outer Banks Women's Club. ``The second grade classes at First Flight Elementary did the same thing. As cynical as we get sometimes, there are people who care.''
At Angel Tree headquarters at the Thomas A. Baum Center in Kill Devil Hills, a fleet of bicycles wait to be ridden. Some bags carry Teddy bears, waiting to be held, and dolls longing for a caress. But some children, though they would love the playthings of childhood, have more pressing needs.
A clean shirt. New shoes. A fishing net to help fill a family's meager dinner table.
``We had one child that asked for one thing,'' Haywood says. ``An electric blanket. Another child asked for a skill saw so he could work construction after school.''
``There are a lot of people who think that because of the successful tourism industry, that no one here goes without,'' White says. ``But a lot of the people who are the support staff for tourism - who work at restaurants and hotels - make minimum wage. And a lot of those businesses are closed in January and February. It's hard just to pay rent and put food on the table.''
In the giving, there is also receiving for the assembled multitude of volunteers. Their gift? The blessing of helping someone else.
``We had a woman come in last year, and when we gave her (the) bag for the children, she cried. We also had a family that had been on our list. But about three years ago things turned around for them. They contribute every year,'' White said. ``It makes you realize that it is true that it is more blessed to give than to receive.''
Today is the last day the Baum Center will accept gifts for this year's Angel Tree Project. Included in the bags of clothes and toys are gift certificates from local grocery stores for food. In the 11th hour, there is a shortage of money for the food certificates.
``We'll be taking contributions for next year,'' White said. ``But everything we get in contributions will be going to the food certificates.
The names of the children helped by the Angel Tree Project are known only to God and the Department of Social Services. So no one, save their parents, will see the gleaming faces of those kids on Christmas Day.
But those faces and those of the Angel Tree volunteers confirm one thing:
There aren't just angels in heaven.
Some live just around the corner. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
TO CONTRIBUTE
Today is the last day for contributions to this year's Angel Tree
Project. To make a gift, stop by the Thomas A. Baum Center in Kill
Devil Hills, or call 441-1181.
by CNB