Company adopts orphans for holiday
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on December 15, 2006 1:45 PM
There are 65 orphans who will have a merry Christmas because of gift donations to Frema Motors' Angel Tree.
The Angel Tree is bare, and each child will receive two gifts.
Office manager Caroyn Mozingo said the Kennedy Home orphanage in Kinston provided names to place on the tree this year. She said the orphans gave first, second and third choices for gifts. Churches had already committed to providing first choices, so the dealership was going to take care of Choice No. 2.
But when the list came in, the requests were so minimal that Frema's Angel Tree hung two decorations for each child rather than just one.
"Some of the things they asked for. One of them broke my heart," Ms. Mozingo said of the 16-year-old boy who requested boxer shorts as his first choice. "His second choice was T-shirts. Is that not sad?"
Some of the other requests placed on the tree decorations were for things like socks, underwear, sweatshirts and hooded sweat jackets. Several requested practical items like batteries. Some wanted musical gifts like CD players. One wanted some gospel compact discs.
Helping create the decorations for the Angel Tree was 7-year-old Martha Ann Korschun, whose mother owns Frema.
"I bought some patterns and poster paper at Michael's. We did trees, stars, snowmen, reindeer, snowmen, Santas, reindeer, and we did them in bright colors. It looked really good," Ms. Mozingo said.
Others in the office wrote on the decorations information about the children like their name, gender, age and what gift they wanted to receive.
All of the gifts have not been turned in yet. Frema Motors is providing the giftwrapping. The deadline has been stretched to today.
But that doesn't give the employees much time to purchase gifts that are not turned in and have them ready in time for the party Frema is going to give at Kennedy Home on Dec. 17. Pizza Inn is providing the food. The drinks are on Southco, and entertainment is coming from John Moore at WNCT and Taylor Michaels, a magician.
This is the first year Frema has adopted Kennedy Home for the company Christmas project. But it's not the first Christmas project. The dealership has been doing something to help the needy ever since Ms. Mozingo started working there 18 years ago.
She said the company adopted three families and bought them Christmas gifts last year.
The employees help families at Thanksgiving, too.
"We give back to the community," she said. "And at Christmas, we have always done something."