Operation Angel Care heralding a better Christmas for local children
By Bob Flynn
All children deserve a good
Christmas. That belief was what inspired current Somerset Junior Woman’ s Club President Wynona Padgett in 1992 to partner with her employer at the time, Lake 102 FM, to begin a toy drive for less fortunate youth in Somerset.
“ I knew there were kids out there who might not get toys for Christmas so we decided to partner with the radio station and do a toy drive that we called Candy Cane Kids,” Padgett said.“ I think that first year, we had 35 kids signed up. We collected the toys for them and we had a meal for them and they received their gifts from Santa Claus.”
The project quickly became a favorite for the 25 members of the Somerset Junior Woman’ s Club( SJWC), including current project chair Lisa Foor.
“ Christmas is so special to me because it was my grandmother’ s birthday and she raised me,” said Foor.“ And it’ s Jesus’ birthday and you are supposed to love like Jesus and that means you love everyone, especially children.”
After the radio station was sold in 1996 the Candy Cane Kids name was dropped but the initiative continued.
In 2010, the Women’ s Club partnered with Charter Communications, Paul Discount, The Commonwealth Journal and Clear Channel Radio and named the project Operation Angel Care.
Since then it has become more than just a toy drive as gift bags now include clothing and personal items as well.
“ In a typical bag we try to get at least one outfit of clothes. If they need a coat, we get a coat. If they need shoes, we get them shoes. And we try to get at least one toy, underwear, socks and toothbrushes,” said Foor.
Parents or grandparents sign up their child with Operation Angel Care, giving them the ages of the children, their clothing sizes and things they like to play with and their favorite color.
That information is put onto angel-shaped cards, which are then put on trees at local businesses and disseminated to the others who partner with the Junior Women’ s Club.
Angel Trees can be found at Red Letter Studio Tattoo’ s, Bodean’ s Tattoo, Don Franklin Kia, Maker’ s Mill and the Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce office.
Operation Angel Care has grown exponentially since its humble beginning and the past two years have seen between 1,100 and 2,200 children sign up.
Over the years, SJWC members gathered the items, bagged them at a central location and gave them out on two designated pickup days.
But with only 25 club members and the numbers reaching such large numbers, it was getting more difficult to pull that off each year.
So last year, for the first time, the club began partnering with several local churches and organizations such as the local school Family Resource Centers as well to host events
20 • SEKY- Southeast Kentucky Life December 2025