Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree Program Offers Hope To Kids Of Incarcerated Parents

More than 14,000 children in Oklahoma have parents who are in prison.

The Prison Fellowship Angel Tree Program provides gifts to those kids as a way to make the holidays a little easier.

News On 6 spoke to a woman whose children received gifts through the program while she was incarcerated. She says this act of kindness gave her the motivation to turn her life around.

These gifts and smiling faces were made possible by the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree Program.

"To receive that gift with a handwritten note of words of encouragement from mom or dad, those words of love to the children, I think it comforts them," said Tammy Franklin.

Every child receiving a gift has one or more parents who are incarcerated.

Franklin now serves as the Director of Correctional Programs for Prison Fellowship, but at one point in time, she was one of these parents.

"Being a parent in prison, there is more shame than you can ever imagine. It's not only that you made mistakes that affect your life, but these mistakes affect your children's lives," she said.

Franklin says this kindness of strangers to supply gifts for her kids that she could say were from her, was the reason she wanted to transform her life.

"I will never forget the day after that they received those gifts and I was able to call home and hear my son say 'Mom, we got your present!' Just the joy that that brought that was one of the things that really helped me but the other thing was just seeing people who cared about families they didn't know."

Tammy says out of the 14,000 children they are providing gifts for this year, they still have 190 children left on their list.

She hopes people will donate to bring a smile to these kiddos.

The deadline to help the children left on their list is Dec. 20. For more information or to donate, click here.