Southern Skyline Community Christmas Angels not hung from light poles this year
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — The scenery driving down Highway 90 and Azalea Road is different this year compared to past holiday seasons.
The City of Mobile has installed Christmas angels owned by the Southern Skyline Community in the area for the past several years, but with a shortage of electrical workers, the city could not fulfill that obligation this Christmas.
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District 4 Councilman Ben Reynolds said that due to the city’s shortcomings, he allocated discretionary funds to the community group to be used for installation costs.
“I allocated money to the Southern Skyline Community for them to have the funds at least to do it,” Reynolds said.
Glen Perry, a board member of the Southern Skyline Community, said he understands the city’s reasoning, and he was appreciative of Reynolds’s donation.
“Unfortunately, it’s a little bit too late. It’s a few days before Christmas,” Perry said. “We couldn’t see spending that amount of money for just a few days for the angels to be up, so we’re going to bank that money, work on a plan for next year and make sure that at Thanksgiving, those angels will be put up through Christmas.”
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Each year, the angels are placed at strategic locations throughout the community.
“Everybody needs an angel looking over them, especially at an intersection,” Florencia Holt, a board member of the Southern Skyline Community, said.
Currently, there are 22 angels in the collection, but Holt said she hopes to purchase another one for next holiday season to honor her son who was killed in a February hit-and-run accident.
“It’s going to be a way that we can remember him next season,” Holt said.
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Many of the angels were donated by local businesses, but some, like one with a pink halo, were bought by family members to remember lost loved ones.
“There is an angel that does get to me because it’s the angel that has the pink halo,” Holt said. “That was actually in memory of one of my friends who died of breast cancer.”
Holt said 10 more angels are needed to complete the project of adding a guardian angel to every major intersection in the Southern Skyline Community.
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