Social workers from the Department of Social Services gather the gifts to be given to more than 100 of the county's needy children from underneath the tree at the Lumberton Correctional Institution. | Cory Riner | The Robesonian

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Social workers from the Department of Social Services gather the gifts to be given to more than 100 of the county's needy children from underneath the tree at the Lumberton Correctional Institution. | Cory Riner | The Robesonian

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James McRae, aAssistant Superintendent for Custody at Lumberton Correctional Institution, tries to find a place to put the many gifts donated from the Angel Tree campaign by prisoners. | Cory Riner | The Robesonian

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Cory Riner

Staff writer

LUMBERTON — More than 100 of the county’s children are going to have a merrier Christmas thanks to donations from the employees of the Lumberton Correctional Institution.

Brad Perritt, superintendent of the Lumberton Correctional Institution, said that he wanted the institution to help out the community this year.

“This was my first year down here and I wanted to do something for the community,” Perritt said. “So we called the Department of Social Services to see how we could help the kids in the community.”

Perritt, Mary Locklear, assistant superintendent for Programs, and James McRae, assistant superintendent for Custody, decided to put up an Angel Tree. Each of the angels hanging on the tree represented a children and provided a list of possible gifts. The prison’s employees were then able to pick a name off of the tree and put the gifts underneath the tree.

“There were some really nice gifts in there,” Perritt said.

The gifts ranged from clothing and toys to bicycles and electronics.

The children’s names were provided by the Department of Social Services, the Odum Home in Pembroke, and the Pembroke Housing Authority.

Denise Fann, a social worker at the Department of Social Services, said that it’s always looking for ways to help the children who have been identified as needy.

“We as social workers identify the children and wait for a sponsor,” Fann said. “And the prison took 80 of the names this year.”