The children of Grayson County may see less under the Christmas tree this year and the holiday season may not be as cheery for the needy in the county as in past years.

With almost 1000 names of needy children expected, organizers of the Grayson County Christmas Program are banning together and hoping to pull resources from every area of the county to help these children have a Merrier Christmas.

“I’m really afraid that the loss of jobs recently in the county and the overall shape of the economy will make it very hard on our Christmas programs this year,” said Tracy Dennison, one of the coordinators of the Grayson County Christmas Program during a recent meeting.

The group included the local Resource Centers, Parent/Child Center, Community Action, Community Education and members of the American Legion Post in Leitchfield, which are all going to be scrambling to meet the increased needs of the holiday season.

“We have worked very hard over the past few years to unite the different organizations to make sure that everyone was served and each of the organizations knew what the other was doing”, we hope that this continues to be the trend,” said Community Educator Angie Jones.

“The goal of this meeting is to help spread the word that we will have to work together as a team. We want everyone in need to be served, but we need those who have help to offer, to work together to insure that we are doing it in the most efficient ways,” said Dennison. “We need groups, churches, businesses, office groups—everyone to work through our program, it is the only way we will be able to serve everyone”.

According to the directors of the resource centers that are responsible for taking the applications, the process has already begun and will run through the middle of November for the Christmas Wish List. The group expects there will be between 800 and 1000 applications taken this year.

“What we need now more than anything are sponsors. We need any church group, business, office groups who would like to sponsor more than one child to contact us now—when the applications are complete, we will then provide these groups with their angels,” said Dennison “This makes it so much easier for each of the Centers to distribute the names.” Any remaining names will then be placed on the tree at Wal-Mart for final distribution.

Dennison added, that this is a good project for church or civic organizations, school organizations or just parents who want to teach their children the importance of giving to the community.

Anyone interested in either sponsoring “angels” on the Angel Tree or ringing the bell can call either Tracy Dennison at (270) 259-0043 or Angie Jones at (270) 259-4925.