Angela Sanchez-Pope of Los Alamos has spent the last 28 years serving as an angel for the abandoned. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
Gifts of warm clothing and other items packaged for delivery to those in need. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com
A request from her mother led Angela Sanchez-Pope to a life serving as an angel for the abandoned.
“It all started in 1996 when my mother moved to a nursing home. She met a woman there who needed toiletries and other items but didn’t have family to help her. They had moved to Texas and didn’t return to visit her,” the Los Alamos resident said. “My mother asked me to run home and gather some items for the woman. From then on I help those who are alone.”
Sanchez-Pope recalled how one man began to weep when he unwrapped a gift and opened the card she had signed with his son’s name.
“I asked him if he didn’t like his gift. He told me he thought his son had forgotten him,” she said. “It’s important that they get that feeling that their family didn’t forget them … that’s why I do this,” Sanchez-Pope said.
For the last 28 years she has collected winter clothes, warm socks, pajamas, toiletries and candies for those in need. She has never done fundraising. Donations come in through word of mouth, she said, adding that she also shops at local thrift stores and some people bring her needed items from regular stores. Some churches, children and parents help put gift bags together. The United Church of Los Alamos is a significant supporter and her church, Immaculate Heart of Mary, helps as well.
“State troopers sometimes pick up older people wandering with dementia and it can take up to two weeks to find their family, so they are housed at the state hospital in Las Vegas,” Sanchez-Pope said. “The hospital really needs these donations and sends me lists of items and sizes they need.”
Anyone who would like to volunteer to assemble gifts bags or donate items or funds is asked to email Sanchez-Pope at essangela@comcast.net.
Gifts baskets filled with toiletries and socks and small gifts packaged for delivery to those in need. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com
Gifts of warm clothing and other items packaged for delivery to those in need. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com