By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – The deadline to get in on the Salvation Army’s Christmas Assistance Program is this Tuesday night at 11:00pm.

Christmas Angel Trees have been set up at businesses all over town with the names of kids and their Christmas needs and wishes. Those who have the means can choose one or more names from the tree and shop for the things on the family member’s list.

But parents, if you want to get your child’s name on the Angel Tree, you only have until 11:00 Tuesday night to sign up. Just go SAAngelTree.org.

The link will ask if you have an invitation code. Click the word “NO” and it will ask for your zip code. From there you’ll be asked to enter your address and other information before you’re asked to enter each child and their wish list.

The other deadline fast approaching is the one for the gift givers, and that’s on December 18. The Salvation Army’s Major Barbara Wehnau explains why they need the gifts by one week before Christmas.

“And I know a lot of the times people think, “Well, Christmas is not for another week”. But when we get all those gifts in, we have to spend that weekend putting all those together. So we take over our dining room and we work really hard at it going to exactly that child. Just like Santa Claus, we check our list twice, you know, we bag up our things, and then the night before we distribute, we go through again and we check our list to make sure we’re not missing anybody, or anything else.”

If you would like to be a part of the fulfillment of those “wishes”, adopt one or more of the Angels off the trees and return them by no later than December 18th. The Angel Trees can be found in Port Angeles at: Walmart, Swains, 1st Federal, Wilder Toyota, and Fastenal. In Sequim at: Key Bank, Walmart and Blue Mountain Animal Clinic.