Organization needs help to bring Christmas to kids
By Tim Olmeda
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 1:40 PM CST
A local non-profit organization that helps troubled teens is asking the public to help make the Christmas holiday possible for some of its children.
Staff at the Teen Challenge of Texas Coastal Bend Center are working to gather gifts of clothes and other items for 41 children, ranging in age from one month to 12 years old.
"A lot of these kids have had pretty rough lives," Katie Patterson, a member of the Coastal Bend Center, said. "We offer them hope."
Teen Challenge of Texas, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded in 1958 by Rev. David Wilkerson in Brooklyn, New York. Today, there are more than 300 Teen Challenge programs around the world.
The program is designed to help individuals learn how to lead drug-free lives by being discipline-oriented and offering a balance of Bible classes, work assignments and recreation. No medication is used to help treat drug addicts, organizers said.
Driscoll currently houses the Coastal Bend Center, which is the largest Teen Challenge center in Texas with a capacity for 200 people. It caters to men, women and families with children.
Currently, the facility houses 26 children on-campus, while another 15 are assisted off-campus.
"Right now, we're planning for Christmas, so that's where most of our funding is going," Patterson said.
The Coastal Bend Center will be having a yard sale Saturday at 7 a.m. to raise money for the program and its various activities, but donations are also currently being accepted as well for the center's children. Items being sought include clothing and undergarments.
Organizers said donated items can be picked up by the center's staff or dropped off at the facility, located at 2547 U.S. Highway 77 in Driscoll.
For more information on donations, contact the donation program coordinator, Alicia Myers, at 767-7010.
