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| Workers at Maryland Prison Meet Call |
| By Hagerstown Morning Herald |
| Published: 12/24/2002 |
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Christmas is a good time for 5-year-old Megan Gelsinger - maybe too good, her mother thought. 'As she got older, with the amount of Christmas presents every year - (from) parents, aunts, grandparents - she was getting pretty much everything she wanted,' Denise Gelsinger said. 'It started to bother me a bit.' Gelsinger wondered: What happens to children in families with meager incomes, those for whom Santa Claus can't be generous? Gelsinger, the public information officer at the Roxbury Correctional Institution south of Hagerstown, decided last year to take the Salvation Army's Christmas Angel donation program into the prison. She picked up 25 names. Her co-workers snapped them up, forcing her to get four more. Gelsinger said the Salvation Army told her that it needed clothing more than toys, so Roxbury employees bought clothes for the children they adopted. Separately, Gelsinger bought to give to the Salvation Army 15 coats for $7 each, including a deep discount. She described the coats as 'not real thick, but all-weather. You'd wear them (when it's) 30 degrees versus 0 degrees.' Her co-workers paid for 10 more coats from a Christmas party fund. They also bought 15 to 20 winter outfits and about 30 toys when the Salvation Army discovered that the need was greater than the organization expected. 'It's much bigger than I ever imagined,' said Gelsinger, a Washington County native who lives with her husband Ed and their daughter just across the Maryland border in Franklin County, Pa. 'We have generous employees, but I had no idea how much people would get into this.' Several employees with no children or with grown children participated. Some took one name home and bought gifts, then asked for a second name. Gelsinger said the Roxbury staff may challenge the other two prisons south of Hagerstown to see who can contribute the most to the Christmas Angel program next year. |
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