A Christmas program helped her family in the 1970s. She’s returned the favor for 20 years
Alex Wilson has been volunteering with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program for 20 years — but her connection to the annual program goes back even further.
As a girl growing up in northwest Charlotte in the 1970s, Wilson’s family struggled. When she was 4, her father died. A couple years later, her mother, a registered nurse, hurt her back at a second job and wasn’t able to keep working.
There were times the family didn’t have power, food or hot water at home, Wilson said.
She remembers her and her older brother getting help during the holidays from the Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte Angel Tree program. It matches children in need with anonymous donors who buy them presents for Christmas.
In cases where donors don’t step up, Charlotte Observer readers cover the expense by giving to the Empty Stocking Fund, which the Observer has sponsored since about 1920.
Wilson remembers getting a doll the family still laughs about — an odd-looking Hugo: Man of a Thousand Faces doll and a life-sized doll. It was nice, she said, to be thought of.
“That was the only chance we had to have Christmas that year,” Wilson said.
Helping others after a cancer diagnosis
Wilson, 53, left Charlotte in 1980 but returned in 1992 to pursue a degree in industrial psychology at UNC Charlotte. She also has a degree in business administration from the University of South Florida.
Her job as a human resources consultant required a lot of travel.
But in 2001, Wilson was diagnosed with kidney cancer. A year later, doctors confirmed Wilson had a rare genetic disorder called von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. It causes tumors to grow and is what caused the kidney cancer, Wilson said.
She has had more than a dozen surgeries over the last 20 years to manage the disorder, including the removal of three brain tumors in 2020.
After her cancer diagnosis in 2001 and coming back from surgery, Wilson thought to herself: there’s a reason I’m still here. Let me do something.
That’s when she started volunteering with the Angel Tree program.
Most years, Wilson helps the program in distribution, meaning she helps to see gifts are getting to the right place. This year, her company, a human resources consulting firm called Adept HRM Solutions, adopted 23 angels.
Her time helping out has been very rewarding.
“It’s wonderful,” Wilson said. “I know somewhere on Christmas morning a child will have a Christmas and know someone cared (about them).”
Angel Tree Program and Empty Stocking Fund
The 2022 Angel Tree program is helping 2,610 families in Mecklenburg and Union counties this holiday season, representing 6,660 children, according to the Salvation Army. The program also is providing gift cards to 1,716 seniors and 436 people with disabilities.
Last season, Observer readers donated $227,822 to the campaign that helps provide gifts for kids, as well as senior citizens and people with disabilities.
Money raised by the 2021 Empty Stocking Fund campaign allowed The Salvation Army to purchase more than 9,270 toys for this year’s campaign, along with gift cards for seniors, foster children and adults with disabilities.
How to give
To donate online, visit EmptyStockingFundCLT.org.
To donate by mail, send checks to: The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte, P.O. Box 31128, Charlotte, NC 28231. Make checks payable to The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte and write “Empty Stocking Fund” in the memo line.
Questions concerning your donation? Call 704-716-2769.
This story was originally published December 21, 2022 at 9:13 AM.
