Coats for Angels: God-filled Event

Written by Isaura Ochoa

“Being a single women with a fixed income I didn’t have any money to donate to the church… so I make jewelry as a hobby and I started to make little angle purse charms and started to sell them at a boutique in Bakersfield. They started to sell so I said why don’t I use the money from here to buy some warm winter coats for the children. Then I thought hmmm coats, angels, coats for angels,” said Maggie Felix. 

On what one would optimistically call a morning filled with angels. The active International Christian Center in San Leandro and Maggie Felix, a member of this center, hosted a rather thoughtful event called Coats for Angels on Saturday, Nov. 9. The beautiful event started at 8:30 a.m. and went to about 1 p.m.             

Located in a school-sized gymnasium was what could be described as a mini market. An ad was placed on Craigslist promoting $35 spaces for vendors to place their business. There were a total of 29 vendors selling their personal business items such as jewelry, pillow cases etc. Along with the money that was made renting the vendor’s spaces and multiple donations that were received a total of about $2,000 were fundraised.

The vendors were not the only call for attention this god-filled event had, there were also various forms of entertainment and games. A family band filled with members of the church performed what could be described as giving music as well a praise dance. The praise dance is a form of worshiping the lord in dance. There were also games such as the diper derby, dressing the Christmas tree and a relay race.

“Today is a fundraising event and all the proceeds go to buying coats for our December outreach dinner. The dinner includes a ham and turkey dinner,” said Maggie Felix. “Then each child that comes in gets two tickets. One is for a warm coat, it could be used or new, and the other is a brand new toy. Last year we served 450 children.”

This year the dinner will be held on Saturday, Dec. 21.

Throughout the year this International Christian Center accepts donations of any kind such as toys, clothes, money and use these donations to help better accommodate the less fortunate that arrive to the outreach dinner. If you may have any items that you believe can be of help or simply wish to volunteer please feel free to stop by the International Christian Center during there available hours.