By KRISTEN DALE

kdale@newsaegis.com

Growing up as one of 15 children, Reynolds Blake knew what it meant to sacrifice for others. He raised his daughter, DeeAnne Blake Adcox, to be a generous person, too — one who looks for opportunities to help. The morals Blake instilled stayed with Adcox even after his passing, and it led her to create Christmas Blessings to honor his memory.

Christmas Blessings, which launched in November 2014, was initially designed to provide Christmas celebrations for children who weren’t able to have one in the area. Adcox’ idea was to collect applications from children, find willing sponsors, and match them up.

But no more than a month and a half after the organization began, Adcox had collected sponsors for 665 children in St Clair, Jefferson and Blount counties.

In the program, once a child is adopted, the sponsor can meet with the child’s parent or guardian, providing sponsors with an opportunity to learn what the child wants and needs.

“We are just a middleman,” Adcox said. “We connect the children with the sponsors, and then the sponsors take it from there, doing what they can to bless the kids.”

Sponsors work with families to give children the best Christmas possible. Sponsors choose to adopt just one child, multiple children, or a whole family.

“This organization isn’t about us helping the children,” Adcox said. “It’s about the community helping each other, and that is what makes it so strong.”

In addition to finding sponsors, the organization also gave out 20 live Christmas trees this holiday season, according to Adcox.

Christmas Blessings doesn’t stop giving when the holidays end. Throughout the year, organization leaders work in the community to find and meet those needs.

Christmas Blessings will accept sponsors until Christmas. To learn more about the organization or become a sponsor, contact Adcox at (205) 601-0124, Leslie Green at (205) 420-8593, or find the group on Facebook.