GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — About 4,000 Garfield County kids will have presents galore this Christmas thanks to LIFT-UP's Angel Tree Project. This long-running drive provides needy kids with presents their families couldn't otherwise afford.

Volunteers were in high gear this week wrapping presents and setting them up in area churches for distribution.

On Friday, Lance and Amy Larsen were hip deep in presents in a gym-sized room at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Glenwood Springs. While the church has been involved in the LIFT-UP-sponsored gift drive effort for the past three years, this is the first year of volunteering for the Larsens and their five children.

Amy had just returned from Wal-Mart, where she bought gifts for about 190 kids whose names weren't chosen from the Angel Tree.

Looking over the stacks of boys' pants and little girls' makeup kits, Lance Larsen said, "We (men) tried to be sensible. We bought clothes. The girls bought makeup."

Gifts get to kids through the Angel Trees placed in local stores and banks and hospitals. People pick an angel card, which lists the ages, gender and sizes of the kids, off the tree. They purchase and wrap the gifts and return them to the tree.

This year about 1,250 Glenwood Springs kids will receive gifts, along with more than 1,000 kids in Rifle and about 1,400 kids in Carbondale, said LIFT-UP director Mike Powell.

About 4,000 children have been registered for gifts through LIFT-UP over each of the last four years, Powell said.

But there is a bit of a hitch this year. About 600 angel cards were plucked off trees without presents being returned. Powell estimated he will spend about $15,000 buying gifts for kids whose cards weren't returned.

"We're not going to tell those kids they are not going to get something," he said.

But the generosity of the communities of the valley is apparent in the hundreds of packages lining the church hall in Glenwood.

"There is a lot of goodness that comes out of this community," Lance said.

The volunteer effort has been especially worthwhile for the Larsen children.

"It's good for the people who are giving," Lance said.

"That's the beauty of it," Amy added.

Presents will be distributed at the LDS church in Glenwood Springs beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday.



Contact Donna Gray: 945-8515, ext. 16605

dgray@postindependent.com



Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO