Benton families can apply for the program through school counselors, who will then approve applicants and request a bit of a "wish list" for each school-age student. Community volunteers will then be able to pull an anonymous wish list to shop—much like the previous arrangement of Salvation Army angel tree—and return gifted items to Benton City Hall. Since this is replacing and consolidating efforts from previous years like Salvation Army and Bright Futures, we are anticipating reaching 500 Benton students! We also hope this program complements other efforts that serve neighboring areas and/or serve a different objective.

On Sat, Dec 13th at FBC-Benton, parents/guardians will check-in; walk through stations to select resources from community vendors (food commodity box, stocking stuffers, hygiene items, information about programs/events); receive the gifted items corresponding to each student; and even be offered assistance with gift wrapping on site.
From shopping in advance to greeting on distribution day, there will be a number of volunteer opportunities that run through and/or serve on Sat Dec 13th. You can see more about some volunteer roles here:
https://saltandlight.galaxydigital.com/agency/detail/?agency_id=175138
On behalf of the planning team, we’d love for you all to consider involvement with the program, whether it’s as a vendor table providing an item/resource of your choice, your group committing to “shop” for an estimated number of students, and/or signing up to volunteer for a role. Hope this info sparks some ideas for y’all, and let me know who else needs to hear about it--your church, a colleague, etc.