Student-Athletes at UA Donating Gifts for Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree Project

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — More than 400 student-athletes from all intercollegiate sports at The University of Alabama have joined together to help children in need this holiday season by buying gifts that will be given to Project Angel Tree on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 4:45 p.m. in the foyer of Coleman Coliseum.

The UA student-athletes are assisting Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree by donating the gifts to 40 children whose parents are incarcerated. Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, which coordinates Angel Tree, will be at the UA event to participate in the distribution and thank the student-athletes and representatives from UA Intercollegiate Athletics.

Earley says participation by athletes in programs targeting at-risk kids can make a huge difference. “Nothing can replace the love of a mother or father in the life of a child. That’s why Angel Tree is so important. It shows these children that their mom or dad – even though in prison – still loves them. And, on top of that, the children can see that they are not alone, that others care about them, too, thanks to volunteers like these wonderful Crimson Tide athletes,” Earley says.

This year marks the 18th year that UA student-athletes have participated in the program.

Angel Tree works by connecting parents in prison with their children through holiday gifts. The gifts, provided by churches and volunteers, are given to the children in the name of their prisoner-parents. Since 1982, the program has helped some 7.5 million children. For more information about Angel Tree go to www.angeltree.org.

Prison Fellowship, www.prisonfellowship.org, is the world’s largest outreach to prisoners and their children in the U.S. and 113 countries around the world.

For more information about the campus event, contact Jill Lancaster, UA Intercollegiate Athletics, at 205/348-6618, jlancaster@ia.ua.edu.