Phil in Paris
12-21-2004, 11:55 PM
Dec. 19, 2004
BY ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle
Because of strangers, Janice Mingo's kids will get Christmas presents this year.
To those strangers, she wants to say thank you.
Mingo has four children, ranging in age from 13 to 8 months. All have different fathers. Three of the fathers are in prison.
"But that's not the fault of the kids," Mingo said. "And it didn't stop that gentleman from trying to give them presents that I can't afford to give them this year."
The gentleman she refers to is Robert Schmidt.
She's never met him.
Paula Dennett, a homeless mother in Wichita, has never met him either. One of her children has a father in prison.
Lee Autry, a Wichita woman raising three grandchildren on Social Security money, has never met him either. Her daughter has been in prison off and on since 1992, with Lee raising the kids.
Most of the 1,100 children who live in Sedgwick County and who have a parent in state prisons will never meet him, or know what he and hundreds of generous Wichitans have done for them this year.
Schmidt is the local representative of Prison Fellowship, a prison ministry founded by Charles Colson, an aide to President Richard Nixon who served a Watergate-related prison term.
Schmidt connects people who want to give with people in need, in a program called Angel Tree. He also indirectly connects prison inmates with their children.
He talks to prison inmates, and learns the names and addresses of their children. The inmates write letters, help with information.
Schmidt gives that information to churches and other organizations whose members donate toys or clothes or other gifts. The gifts are given in the name of the inmate parent who helped arrange it.
Kansas is such a giving community that Schmidt says he is close to finding at least one present for each of the 1,100 Sedgwick County children with a parent in prison.
Schmidt was working on Friday to find presents for Mingo's kids.
One of the children, Courvoisier Jordan, 11, watched one of Mingo's ex-husbands shoot a man to death three years ago. The child, and Mingo, still go to therapy for that.
She works at a movie theater as a cashier.
She just went back to work after a long layoff prompted by surgery.
There's no money in the house. Her older children stopped asking about Christmas years ago.
"The older two kids understand that it is just me, and that I do what I can," Mingo said. "There's no child support, no outside contributions." Because of her bad judgment concerning men in her life and because of their chronic poverty, her children usually don't get Christmas presents, Mingo said.
Christmas presents will come as a pleasant surprise.
Plenty of kids live in that situation, Schmidt said. It's not their fault.
He said this on his cell phone, on Friday, on his way to Hutchinson, where he would deliver more Christmas presents to children.
He said he was going to deliver presents, then go back to Wichita and check to make sure Christmas presents are lined up for Mingo's kids.
Because of generous people in Kansas, children all over Kansas are going to get a Christmas present this year, Schmidt said.
He said it doesn't matter what their parents did.
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/10450655.htm
BY ROY WENZL
The Wichita Eagle
Because of strangers, Janice Mingo's kids will get Christmas presents this year.
To those strangers, she wants to say thank you.
Mingo has four children, ranging in age from 13 to 8 months. All have different fathers. Three of the fathers are in prison.
"But that's not the fault of the kids," Mingo said. "And it didn't stop that gentleman from trying to give them presents that I can't afford to give them this year."
The gentleman she refers to is Robert Schmidt.
She's never met him.
Paula Dennett, a homeless mother in Wichita, has never met him either. One of her children has a father in prison.
Lee Autry, a Wichita woman raising three grandchildren on Social Security money, has never met him either. Her daughter has been in prison off and on since 1992, with Lee raising the kids.
Most of the 1,100 children who live in Sedgwick County and who have a parent in state prisons will never meet him, or know what he and hundreds of generous Wichitans have done for them this year.
Schmidt is the local representative of Prison Fellowship, a prison ministry founded by Charles Colson, an aide to President Richard Nixon who served a Watergate-related prison term.
Schmidt connects people who want to give with people in need, in a program called Angel Tree. He also indirectly connects prison inmates with their children.
He talks to prison inmates, and learns the names and addresses of their children. The inmates write letters, help with information.
Schmidt gives that information to churches and other organizations whose members donate toys or clothes or other gifts. The gifts are given in the name of the inmate parent who helped arrange it.
Kansas is such a giving community that Schmidt says he is close to finding at least one present for each of the 1,100 Sedgwick County children with a parent in prison.
Schmidt was working on Friday to find presents for Mingo's kids.
One of the children, Courvoisier Jordan, 11, watched one of Mingo's ex-husbands shoot a man to death three years ago. The child, and Mingo, still go to therapy for that.
She works at a movie theater as a cashier.
She just went back to work after a long layoff prompted by surgery.
There's no money in the house. Her older children stopped asking about Christmas years ago.
"The older two kids understand that it is just me, and that I do what I can," Mingo said. "There's no child support, no outside contributions." Because of her bad judgment concerning men in her life and because of their chronic poverty, her children usually don't get Christmas presents, Mingo said.
Christmas presents will come as a pleasant surprise.
Plenty of kids live in that situation, Schmidt said. It's not their fault.
He said this on his cell phone, on Friday, on his way to Hutchinson, where he would deliver more Christmas presents to children.
He said he was going to deliver presents, then go back to Wichita and check to make sure Christmas presents are lined up for Mingo's kids.
Because of generous people in Kansas, children all over Kansas are going to get a Christmas present this year, Schmidt said.
He said it doesn't matter what their parents did.
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/10450655.htm