To many, the holiday season represents gifts, wrapping paper, huge family dinners and a warm house complete with logs burning in the fireplace. But for those less fortunate, the holidays can often bring feelings of sadness, especially when surrounded by lavish decorations and celebrations they cannot access.

So corrections officers throughout the state of North Carolina, and throughout the nation, have taken a warm-hearted initiative in order to provide gifts, donations, and even holiday dinners to families and children that are in need. And corrections officers from one facility in North Carolina chose to focus their attention on one of their own.

“Basically, a sergeant at this facility lost their home in a fire,” says Lieutenant Michael Powell, from the Odom Correctional Institute. “They lost everything they had. And it's the holiday season, so we're certainly coming together at the Odom unit to help.”

Following a devastating house fire that left one sergeant and their family without a home, officers at the Odom facility have pooled their efforts to raise awareness, donations and support. After a lot of hard work over the last few months, officers raised over $4,500 dollars – and one officer even donated a mobile home for the sergeant to live in until other arrangements could be made or the house could be rebuilt. To Powell, these generous gestures are the sign of a good staff of officers.

“We needed to step up during the holiday season,” Powell says. “We don't want one of our sergeants sitting around and not enjoying the holidays with their family. We want to share our wealth. We would have done this for anyone, but anytime something happens in the life of an officer at this facility, we come together for them. Our administration is also very much in support of this.”

Supporting a fellow officer in a difficult situation during the holidays is always special for brothers and sisters in corrections – but the officers in North Carolina's facilities haven't stopped there.

Open Hearts for the Holidays

Officers at the Caldwell Correctional Center (CCC) have also been pooling their efforts in order to help children and families that are obviously in need during the holidays.

“During the holiday season, we open our hearts and our wallets,” says Chad Towery, Assistant Superintendent for the CCC. “We want to ensure that people are having great holidays, and help these children have a great Christmas.”

For the last few years, the CCC has made it a tradition to “adopt” children that are in need during the holiday season. This year, the staff at CCC have chosen two local families, and their children, who are in need. According to Towery, donations have been pouring in from officers who cannot wait to help them.

“From what we understood, they weren't going to have much of a Christmas or holiday at all,” Towery says. “But we wanted to change that – we want to give them a tremendous Christmas. Just because someone is a little more unfortunate than yourself doesn't mean you can't help.”

According to Towery, the CCC uses a community resource council to help identify families and children in need, and then the officers begin to collect donations. Officers from CCC collect and donate food, toys and clothing in order to ensure the families are taken care of during the holidays. Towery says that the donation drives unite officers and give them a common goal. And the children are always surprised when they are given toys and visited by “Santa Claus”.

“Next week, one of the families will be coming in to pick up their donations,” Towery says. “We're planning to have someone dressed as Santa Claus to greet them and help distribute gifts.”

A State of Giving

The officers at CCC aren't the only ones adopting families that need assistance for the holidays. Staff at the Pender Correctional Institute (PCI) are giving to children and the elderly that are in need this season.

“We adopted two children from the Department of Social Services,” explains Susan White, Assistant Superintendent for Programs at PCI. “And our officers really get involved over the holiday season – they want to help out the children and they want to help out the elderly too.”

PCI officers have spent the last few weeks collecting donations for children and the elderly who might not otherwise receive gifts this year. According to White, although their donations are anonymous, the officers know the assistance is appreciated.

“These programs really build staff morale – you see folks coming in to see who donated what, to find out how much we've raised. They have suggestions, they are so interested,” says White. “They feel so good about giving. We wrap the gifts up and send them on over – and this year we had so many gifts to donate that it felt really special.”

White adds that the donations also give officers a sense of pride.

“You can feel it in the air here,” White says. “At this time of year, you can see it and feel it on our facility. We often don't know who receives our donations because our system does this anonymously – but that's not important to us. We just know that we are helping someone that is not as fortunate as we are, and we think this is something that will continue every year at this facility. This is something we have looked forward to every year and everyone at this facility is involved in a huge way.”

The Heart of Corrections

The officers at PCI are just the tip of the donation iceberg in North Carolina. Almost every facility in the state has been working hard to provide donations for those in need – and the Southern Correctional Institution (SCI) is no exception. Since 1983, SCI has also found children in need through the Department of Social Services.

“This is a wonderful tradition for us, and we've done it for years,” says Bonnie Leach, Administrative Assistant to Correctional Administrator Gary Miller. “We get the names of children in need from the Department and we announce to the staff and the population that we're sponsoring a family and let them know the number of children we're sponsoring.”

Once everyone in the facility knows that it's donation time, officers and inmates alike do their best to help. Then once the donations are collected, Leach has the chance to help each family one on one.

“I've actually gone shopping with the family – we make sure we're getting the right sizes and the right presents that the children want and need,” Leach explains. “The families are so appreciative. We make sure the donations are delivered while the children aren't home, so it's that much more of a surprise for them.”

According to Leach, the officers are happy to help other families, and they often get cards thanking them for their efforts after they have raised donations. And Leach says many of the officers are overjoyed to offer help and donations

“This shows the heart of corrections, and Christmas,” Leach says. “Many of these officers have children and families of their own to worry about – but they don't want anyone to go lacking during the holiday season. Our officers are proud to do this – and that's obvious in the way they contribute every single year. This makes us a family here. We are committed to this – it creates a fellowship here.”

A sense of fellowship is also what drives officers at the Johnson Correctional Institution (JCI). According to Chris Batten, Program Director at the facility, officers at JCI would rather help others than anything else during the holidays.

“Rather than swapping gifts within the department, we decided that we had plenty of things,” says Batten. “We wanted to help someone else out. We just all decided to give to a children's home. There are only twelve of us at this particular unit, but we raise every little bit we can in donations to help.”

According to Batten, the corrections officers at JCI are especially united during the holiday season.

“We all work towards this one cause – we all want to help someone in the community,” Batten says. “Maybe this will keep some kids happy during the holidays, and maybe inspire them to always act correctly – and maybe even keep them out of a corrections facility in the future. We just really hope to give them some more cheer during the holidays.”

Batten believes that the giving spirit will always remain strong within the DOC.

“We will continue to do this,” Batten says. “We've been doing this for quite a few years, and it's always been a success for us and for the children. Every little bit helps and we've had 100% response from our officers who want to help so much.”

As the staff of corrections facilities throughout the state continue to gather donations and deliver them to those in need, a sense of pride is evident throughout the DOC. And through a tradition of giving, officers have united in corrections to show that the only things larger than their donations are their hearts.