MCCX collected more than 200 toys and gifts to help with Morgan County School Board's Angel Tree program. Image courtesy of Dept. of Corrections.

WARTBURG, TN – Staff at the Morgan County Correctional Complex (MCCX) collected over 200 toys and gifts as part of their effort to aid Morgan County School Board’s Angel Tree program. The program helps families in need of assistance at Christmas.

Staff at MCCX partnered with the school board and pledged to assist 231 children from five county schools. MCCX was assigned children from Sunbright, Central Elementary, Oakdale, Coalfield and Petros-Joyner. Students that are assisted by the Angel Tree Program are identified by teachers and staff across the county. The donated gifts, which were collected all year long at the MCCX facility and took a total of four truckloads to haul, were delivered to the school board’s central office this afternoon. The gifts will be distributed throughout this week and next.

“It means the world to us and to the children,” said Superintendent Ed Diden of the donated gifts. “If it weren’t for the donations from [MCCX], a lot of these children in our area would have nothing under their tree come Christmas Day. There is a huge need in this area and [MCCX] really came through for us and these children this year. ”

“We do it with love. We look forward to this every year. We start collecting for the Angel Tree at the beginning of the year and collect all year until we can give it all away; then we start all over and do it again the next year,” Larenda McCormick, Fiscal Director for MCCX, and Brenda Luttrell, Payroll Officer, said. “We feel so much joy knowing that at least 231 children, who wouldn’t normally have anything Christmas morning, now have a gift to unwrap.”

This is MCCX’s seventh year participating in the Morgan County school board’s Angel Tree Program.