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Angels With Lists Hit The Store

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By LENORA LAKE

llake@tampatrib.com

Published: December 20, 2008

TAMPA - Carol Ann Mullins, a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy, remembers when her adopted son arrived as a foster child at age 3.

"He came with nothing but the clothes on his back," said Mullins, who each December uses a week's vacation and trades her uniform for a Foster Angels volunteer shirt. She and other members of the nonprofit organization help provide gifts for about 1,500 children in foster care in Hillsborough County.

On Friday, Mullins and her 13-year-old son, Nicholas, a middle school student, joined about 25 others as shopping elves to buy items at the New Tampa Wal-Mart Supercenter for 60 foster children.

The participants, armed with tags bearing children's names and wishes, included deputies, sheriff's office Explorer scouts, Foster Angel volunteers and Wal-Mart associates who had been instructed to point out sales.

Store manager Laura DeJesus and her son, Matthew, manager of another Wal-Mart, donated $4,000 to the program. Laura DeJesus said Wal-Mart has participated in the charity program for eight years and "it is a great thing" for the children.

The project is organized by Deputy Judy Woster of the sheriff's office crime prevention program, who said this year each child will receive a pair of shoes, some socks and a jacket, in addition to dolls, games, bicycles and other toys.

"I have no kids; this is fun for me and a way to help others," Woster said, adding that the shoppers would go to another Wal-Mart to buy for 20 children in kinship care or in families that had lost their homes through fire or foreclosure.

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