They've handed out 450 presents over four years. Meet the Christmas angels of Rockaway
Three years ago, Rockaway Township’s Cathy Vonk passed a giving tree in Denville and decided to help. Supported by friends and family, she has spread the Christmas spirit to hundreds of kids in need since.
Vonk was on a coffee run in 2020 when she walked into SmartWorld Coffee on Diamond Spring Road in Denville and spotted an "Angel Tree" − a Christmas tree festooned with tags requesting gifts for a child. She took one.
Her heart sank a week later when she returned to see no other tags had been claimed. She took two more and turned to Facebook, where she shared an image of the neglected tree alongside the gifts her family had prepared. Then Vonk appealed to her friends. “There are so many kids in need,” she wrote. She offered to do the shopping and wrapping; she just needed donations to help buy the gifts.
That first year, Vonk and her supporters bought presents for more than 100 kids − toy drones and art kits and Barbie Dreamhouses and more. But the holiday spirit didn't end there. Season after season, the family has gone back to Angel Trees in the area. Now in its fourth year, the effort has raised more than $16,000 to buy gifts for some 450 kids and counting.
No strangers to hardship
Vonk, a clerk in Rockaway Township's town hall, empathized with the struggling families. So did her husband, Patrick, who spent time in homeless shelters when he was a young child. Now a civil engineer, he encouraged Cathy's generosity. Childhood sweethearts, they grew up together in Elmwood Park.
"My husband had a very rough start to his life," Cathy Vonk said. "He was a tag on a giving tree more than once. He was without a home more than once."
Of her own upbringing, she said: "We didn't have much growing up, but I didn't know it because my parents were always giving ... If anybody needed a meal, they were at our dining room table."
Vonk returned to that first tree a couple of times in 2020 to check on its progress before deciding to take all of its tags. Her living room looked like Santa’s workshop as the family packaged presents for children of all ages.
Disney dress-up costumes, walkie-talkies, roller skates and scooters: Vonk did what she could within a $40 spending limit for each tag. She added her own money whenever the bill went a little over. In the spirit of Christmas, she always added a little something extra as well.
"We always put candy canes in their bags," she said. "We put small toys like bubbles or slime or a puzzle or a slinky. It's just something extra."
Searching for Angel Trees
Donations came in various amounts, from $5 up to $200. Vonk makes sure that all the money goes toward gifts; she posts pictures on Facebook for contributors to see what they're buying for families.
When the 2021 holiday season rolled around, Vonk found herself in coffee and bagel shops across Morris County searching for more Angel Trees. By that point, her kids were involved, too.
Vince, her 11-year-old son, enjoys sketching and comes along whenever art supplies are requested. He helps his mom pair presents with their tags and package them into cellophane bags. "He asks me every morning, 'Did we get anything overnight? How many kids are we helping today?'" Cathy Vonk said.
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Daughter Grace, 8, assists with the buying and is also in charge of morale. It's her encouragement that gets her mom out the door to shop after work. In one of Vonk's Facebook posts, Grace can be seen dancing to Christmas music in front of her mom’s red shopping cart at Target.
“My daughter does all the shopping,” she said. “We call her Head Elf."
Together, the Vonks and their supporters spread Christmas cheer to 121 kids in 2021 and 116 last year. The family has raised and spent between $4,000 and $4,500 each year, with Vonk kicking in about $200 of her own money per season, she said.
Inspired by Boonton pastor
The Angel Trees are the brainchild of Pastor Dunia Velasquez of the King Jesus Rise and Shine International Ministry in Boonton. The nonprofit puts the trees around Morris County each year and typically collects about 1,500 gifts for children whose families are struggling.
The trees were the impetus for the ministry, which started 12 years ago. Like the Vonks, Velasquez has faced hard times. There were a few years when she couldn't put presents under the tree for her own children, she said.
Velasquez refers to everyone who helps with the program as an angel. But Cathy Vonk, she said, is her "special angel."
How to help
Vonk has no intention of stopping. She's shopped for 108 kids so far this year. She's hoping she'll be able to surpass the previous years' totals before donations slow down in the middle of the month.
It's what her parents taught her, she said.
"They always kind of said, 'If you have a little bit, but someone has less than you, you have to give what you can,' and that kind of stuck with me," Vonk said. "When I was looking at that tree with all those tags, I thought, 'Oh, I don't want them to have nothing.' And it just turned into this."
Those interested in donating can email Cathy.Vonk@yahoo.com.
Gene Myers covers disability and mental health for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: myers@northjersey.com
Twitter: @myersgene
Gene Myers covers disability and mental health for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: myers@northjersey.com
Twitter: @myersgene
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Morris County Christmas gift drive 'angel' helps 450 kids
