Students Collect, Wrap Gifts for Prisoners' Children

Program allows kids of prisoners to get gifts from incarcerated parent

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By Bill McAllister
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Story Created: Nov 20, 2012 at 5:58 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2012 at 12:55 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - The project is called “Smiles for a Child," and it's designed to lift the spirits of prisoners and their children just before Christmas.

The public safety and security class at the King Career Center are collecting and wrapping gifts that prisoners in the Palmer Correctional Center in Sutton can give their children.

The project, in its fourth year, was the brainchild of teacher Teena Calkin, a former probation and parole officer.

"To see an inmate who's spending time in a facility that doesn't get much time with their kids, sitting down and making sure they play old maid with their little girl, or Barbies with their little girl, or building Legos with their boy, it truly is just such a... I don't even know how to explain it, it's just a heart-warming feeling."

Collection boxes for donated gifts have been set up at eight locations, including the King Career Center, the school district headquarters and Strands Hair Salon in Anchorage, and Krazy Moose Subs in Wasilla.

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