'Morning of smiles'

The hands extended outward are children’s. They’re empty. They ask — plead almost.

Please, please, please, Mommy, please …

Because it’s Christmas time, the hands usually grab for toys or the latest home video game system.

They ask mommy for that “great big box” with a doll set that one little girl saw in a recent toy store trip.

The Empty Stocking Fund can help fill their hearts as well as the blank spaces under the Christmas tree.

From paycheck to paycheck, some families live. And the gap filler on Dec. 25 is the annual fund-raiser by the Odessa American and the Salvation Army that provides toys at Christmas time and food and clothing all year for needy families.

“You see dollars,” Salvation Army Sgt. Jay Ward said. “I see meals.”

And, he sees children’s annual wishes filled.

The dollar amount, the $62,500 goal this year is faceless.

But a previous face is Sara Gardner or her son, Jerod.

Helped in year’s past, she loved seeing the spine-chilling excitement of her son on Christmas morning, tearing open the wrapped gifts.

It’s something she can’t regularly afford with increased winter utility bills and a limited income after working two part-time jobs, either washing dishes at a local restaurant or behind a convenience store’s cash register.

“It helps adults not have so much stress,” Gardner said.

As a parent, she wants her children to feel the joy of a Christmas wish fulfilled. One mother called it “laughter in the eyes.”

Jerod has Marfan syndrome and an enlarged heart associated with the disease that pushes out his chest cavity. He wears thick glasses because of his legal blindness.

The family travels to Lubbock every six months for Jerod’s doctor’s visits.

He’s in the fifth grade and 11. Jerod’s words stumble a little when he’s asked what he wants for Christmas.

“Something to make me smarter,” he said.

The Empty Stocking Fund helped Marisol Mendoza last year, too.

She’s 30, has two children and recently became a single mother. She works part time with the Salvation Army and has organized the nonprofit’s warehouse for the last year and a half.

Her electricity bills rise in the winter. Her children, cooped up from the cold, eat more in the winter months. The check register’s final monthly result hovers around zero.

“I’m so amazed at how they help people,” Mendoza said.

Last year, her 12-year-old son found a stereo boom box, portable CD player and some “really nice sweaters” under the tree. Her 7-year-old daughter opened up gift boxes with Barbie and princess accessories.

“My daughter didn’t come out of her room,” Mendoza said. “She played all day. And she played the next day.”

WANT TO HELP?

>> Donations to the Empty Stocking Fund may be mailed or delivered to the Salvation Army Community Center, 811 E. 10th St., or the Odessa American, 222 E. Fourth St. ZIP codes for both are 79761.

>> For information, call the Odessa American at 333-7720, or the Salvation Army at 332-0738.

WHAT IS IT?

>> The Empty Stocking Fund was created by the Odessa American in 1995 and has raised more than $554,000 since then.