MEET ARETHA, FROM WEST BALTIMORE
A couple days ago, The Salvation Army’s Temple Corps spearheaded by Lt. Schelika Chisolm and Captain Michael Chisolm, partnered up with The Southwest Police Division and The Southwest Police Division’s Community team to expand Angel Tree Christmas Assistance and Food Assistance for 150 people in West Baltimore. The team congregated at the Edmondson Shopping Center, by the Old Dollar Tree, to hand out gifts and words of love to many people in need. Moms, single family units, children, and the underemployed waited to get help from Temple Corps members, such as Mr. Reggie, a long- time staple of the church.
A month ago, The Salvation Army of Central Maryland had a very slow start to acquiring Angel Tree gifts but thanks to support from many of our media friends, many people opened their hearts and wallets and adopted several hundred children, including ones who live in West Baltimore. Christmas is out of reach for many people living in West Baltimore. This has been an ongoing hardship, well before inflation, and well before the COVID-19 Pandemic aftermath.
Aretha is a lifelong resident of West Baltimore and a grateful recipient of The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Assistance event. She lives alone, in a single family unit, and dotes on her small grandkids. All she wants is to make sure they wake up to presents underneath the tree on Christmas morning.
“The West Baltimore Community is impoverished, as you can see,” said Aretha. “West Baltimore needs rebuilding, revitalization, and funding to give children in West Baltimore hope. Our kids need clothing, food, furniture, appliances, employment opportunities, and training programs for their parents to advance in their jobs.”
The Salvation Army of Central Maryland is low on funding this quarter. With ½ a million down on fundraising this quarter, and red kettles across Central Maryland not raising $100,000, some people in Baltimore, Harford County, Howard County, Carroll County and in Glen Burnie will go without food, rental assistance, utility assistance, and Christmas assistance for next year.
“I just found out that The Salvation Army is low on funds this year. I want to encourage all of you to know that there are people in need,” said Aretha. “People in West Baltimore need training programs, resources for employment for themselves and for their family. The Salvation Army has always been a great comfort to help and assist with those aspects in communities like mine.”
This Christmas season, Aretha is praying for a Christmas miracle for many families in West Baltimore and for herself. She’s enduring hardship right now, and wants her grandchildren to “wake up Christmas morning to gifts under the tree.”