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As you well know, Christmas is a time like no other in The Salvation Army.
There’s the red kettles, the Angel Trees, the holiday meals and so much more.
Christmas is a season of giving, which for many of us means showering those we love with gifts. But it’s also about giving to those most in need.
And in Juneau, Alaska, board members, donors and volunteers help to make sure inmates at Lemon Creek Correctional Center can send their children a gift, too.
Each year, The Salvation Army in Juneau sets up an inmate toy store, offering incarcerated individuals the chance to shop for a gift specifically for their child and write a personalized note in their own handwriting.
The gifts are then brought back to the corps where volunteers carefully wrap each gift with all the trimmings and bows, package them up and mail them to each child wherever they happen to live.
In fact, The Salvation Army name or logo is not included anywhere on the box or gift so the children get the gift directly from their parent.
And as you might imagine, the stories are heartwarming. Through this effort, one inmate even reconnected with his family after being estranged for many years.
And Cathy Muñoz has the stories to tell.
Cathy is the Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development in Alaska, and has served as a Salvation Army Advisory Board member in Juneau for some 25 years.
Having long been involved in this ministry, Cathy is on the show today to share more about this seasonal effort to bring the spirit of giving behind bars and a chance to play a direct role in making the holiday season a little brighter for families.
Show highlights include:
- What the Inmate Toy Store effort entails.
- What it’s like to wrap the presents, knowing who they are going to.
- The response from participants about what this simple act of connecting parent to child through a Christmas gift means.
- What Cathy Muñoz does in her current role.
- Her family history with The Salvation Army.
- Why she stays involved.
- Cathy’s encouragement to get involved in doing good today.
Listen and subscribe to the Do Gooders Podcast now. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.
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Cathy Muñoz: I’m Cathy Muñoz. I’m a long-time resident of Juneau, Alaska. I was born and raised here. I first got involved in The Salvation Army through my father. My dad was a member, a long-time member of the advisory board. And he recruited me in my twenties to get involved and I’ve been involved ever since.
Christin Thieme: I love that your dad recruited you, that’s great.
Cathy Muñoz: And it’s a great organization. The Salvation Army has done a lot of good work in Southeast Alaska. We have the church here in Juneau. We have churches in other communities and mission work throughout the region. But it’s an organization that is highly regarded in the region and does a lot of really good work.
Christin Thieme: Thank you for your involvement for so long. I’m wondering as we get started, if you could just share what is giving you hope recently?
Cathy Muñoz: Gosh, I am so thankful every day is such a joy. I really start my day with a grateful heart, you know, because we’re so fortunate to live and work in this region. I have a beautiful family that I’m very grateful for. Two grandkids, Matthew and Liam, and a wonderful husband, and a great daughter. Just, you know, I’m just super, super blessed. And also very thankful to be able to work in the capacity that I’m working now. I’m the commissioner of the Department of Labor for the State of Alaska. And so I love to get out and travel and connect individuals with employment and training and have an opportunity to see the results of our work throughout the state.
Christin Thieme: Yeah, that’s incredible. You’re a perfect partner for The Salvation Army because I know that’s a big priority for the organization as well. So many people know that The Salvation Army helps brighten Christmas for thousands of families across the country each year. Still, many probably don’t know about a really special way that this happens in Juneau.
Usually the first week of December, The Salvation Army hosts an inmate toy store. Can you share more about this project and what it is?
Cathy Muñoz: Sure, thank you. Well, it was the brainchild of one of our board members, Carol Pitts. About a dozen or so years ago, we decided to start a mission in the local prison. There is a state penitentiary here in Juneau, Alaska, that has inmates from throughout the state located at that site. And what we decided to do was to bring a toy store, if you will, or not just toys, but a gift store to the prison.
We collect donations throughout the year and we go into the prison about three weeks before Christmas. And we set up a room as a kind of a one day store, right? And inmates can go in and select an item for their child. We also provide cards to the inmates that they can do personalized messages to their children.
We bring those items back to The Salvation Army. We wrap them, include the card, and then we mail the package to the child without any indication that it’s coming from The Salvation Army, that this is a gift from the parent, right? And that mission is incredibly powerful.
It has done so much good work. It has uplifted people in ways that are too many to count, really. We know that because the prisoners themselves make significant donations to this work. The ones that participated initially then were so moved by the generosity and the ability to connect with their children in this way that, you know, that we’re receiving contributions. One year, I think we received over $1,000 in donations from prisoners.
Christin Thieme: Wow.
Cathy Muñoz: And these are individuals that are working at very low wages within the prison system, but see this as a real priority for them and something that they truly appreciate. So it’s been super exciting and very meaningful work and I’m very happy to be a part of it.
Christin Thieme: What have you heard from participants about what this, I mean, it’s really a simple act of connecting a parent to a child through a Christmas gift, but it means so much more to that, I imagine, for so many people. Is there a particular story or something through the years that has stuck with you about what this means?
Cathy Muñoz: Well, as you know, a child that has a parent in prison, that’s a very difficult situation for that child. And to know that there is a connection and that they truly care about the welfare, the well-being of that child, even though they’re away from them for a time period is incredibly impactful. And we see that really through the stories of the prisoners themselves, right? And the contributions that are coming to The Salvation Army from those individuals. I think that speaks volumes to the power of this program.
Christin Thieme: Hmm, absolutely. What’s that atmosphere like when you take all those gifts back to the corps and have volunteers there to wrap all the presents knowing who they’re going to? What’s that day like?
Cathy Muñoz: Yeah, it’s exciting. The corps is a beehive of activity. We have volunteers from throughout the community that come and help. We have volunteers from the Rotary Club and various organizations in the community are very helpful.
I mean, we do our prison ministry, then we also do other Christmas programs where we wrap gifts and provide a gift. We have the Angel Tree program. You know, you can select a star on a tree and then we, you know, that an individual family or business can buy gifts for that sponsored family. We do that as well. And then we also allow an opportunity for families in need to come to the corps and sign up to receive gifts around Christmas time. So, you know, they will tell us, I have a teenage daughter or a you know, a 6-year-old son, and then we will fill that request with gifts that then are picked up before Christmas by the family.
So we do a number of different things to support families at Christmas time. And as I said, we couldn’t do it without the volunteers. We have a very active volunteer corps, a group of people that come and help us every year.
Christin Thieme: Having been involved in the advisory board there in Juneau for 25 years now, not a short amount of time, what is it about this organization that you love? Why do you stay involved with The Salvation Army?
Cathy Muñoz: Well, gosh, I know that we are making a difference. I love that we are a Christian-based organization and that we work through the power of prayer and the power of good works. And it comes back to a personal story. My grandfather grew up in Wrangell, Alaska, which is a little community about 100 miles south of Juneau.
And when he was a young boy, he became very ill and he wasn’t expected to live. And it was The Salvation Army officer that every day went to his bedside and prayed with him and the family and saw him through the recovery. My grandfather recovered and became a very successful person. He had a family and lived in this region his entire life.
And I think it was that kind of monumental impact on the family that happened through that act of kindness that led to my father’s involvement in The Salvation Army over the course of his lifetime and now my involvement too. So I love giving back to the community and I think we can do that very effectively through The Salvation Army.
Christin Thieme: I know you were recruited by your dad, but was there a moment in your life where you felt like, you know, I do have hope for a better world, a better community, and I’m going to do something to get involved myself.
Cathy Muñoz: I’m a very hopeful person. I think we’re constantly evolving and getting better. I have a lot of optimism. And I think that the younger generation is, you know, they have a lot of opportunity and skills that, you know, that open doors and provide lots of options for people today that maybe didn’t exist during my grandfather’s time. So I think we have so much to be thankful for and I really enjoy focusing that way my life to encourage my family and others to take advantage of those opportunities.
Christin Thieme: Along those lines, I think it can be easy to look at someone with such a long track record of doing good and think, well, I could never do so much. But what would you say to someone who similarly has hope and is grateful for their life? What would be your encouragement to get involved in doing good today?
Cathy Muñoz: Gosh. I believe personally in the power of just appreciation, being so thankful for the gifts that we have. And I think when you approach your day and your life with a grateful heart, good is multiplied by that way of thinking. I love to see the value in others. I love to encourage others whenever I can. Because each of us has the opportunity to contribute. And each of us has a special gift, right? The Bible tells us that every one of us has a spiritual gift.
And it’s finding that spiritual gift and using it in ways that benefit others that I think is what we’re called to do.
Christin Thieme: Absolutely. Well, we’re just a little bit out from this year’s Inmate Toy Shop. What are sort of the plans? How are they shaping up and what are you hoping to see this year in particular?
Cathy Muñoz: Well, we are ready to gear up. We, you know, we’re meeting our board members. Board members are engaged. This is the time when we look forward to a busy holiday season. have a lot of activity around the holidays from, you know, from our kettle drive to our prison ministry to our, we have a shop that we set up and in one of the very popular craft fairs. We call it Grandma’s Attic. We do that where we raise money every year for The Salvation Army. And then we also have a Thanksgiving meal that we put on. It’s a community-wide event at Thanksgiving time where we provide a beautiful sit-down meal to the community. And it’s open to everybody regardless of their ability to pay or not.
It’s a free meal that is provided by the community. And that’s something that we also are gearing up for. So we have a lot of activities on the horizon.
Christin Thieme: Absolutely. What do you hope for this season?
Cathy Muñoz: Gosh, again, the time to come together and do good work and help others through our charity and through our support of the community. We have many opportunities to help others.
Additional resources:
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- If you want to help The Salvation Army serve more than 24 million Americans in need each year, give today. Your gift of money, goods or time helps The Salvation Army do good all year in your community.
Listen and subscribe to the Do Gooders Podcast now.
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