Amazon worker gives gifts to kids for the holiday season
EDGEMERE -- An Amazon worker is embodying the holidays, helping to ensure all kids in Baltimore County get gifts this season.
Jasper Allen was incarcerated for 15 years, so it's meant a lot of Christmases away from his family. But, a program helped make sure his kids had gifts under the tree every year he was away, and he's helping other families in that position now.
On behalf of Amazon, Allen donated $25,000 toward the Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program.
"We all must be the change that we want to see in other people," Allen said. "I always felt like and knew what it felt like to just not be able to have the things a kid wants at Christmas. The toys, the gifts, and not a whole lot--just the small things."
Angel Tree ensures kids of incarcerated parents get gifts, to make sure all families feel the holiday spirit.
"Any type of service, any type of support that we provide for them, it's a huge support. It impacts lives," said Mayra Perez, family ministry manager at Prison Fellowship.
Amazon offered to make the donation as a thank you for all the work Allen has done. He's an associate partner on the PXT team, Amazon's HR arm. He started on the warehouse floor, then got promotion after promotion to his current role now.
"I always knew that wouldn't be the end of it. I always knew I was destined for greater things," he said. "I just had to come in and prove my worth."
After relying on Angel Tree for so many years, he knows how much good this donation is going to do.
"It's going to change a lot of lives, and it's going to put a lot of smiles on kid's and adult's faces during this holiday season. That's really important to me," Allen said.
Prison Fellowship said they serve thousands of families in the Baltimore County area and this donation will definitely help all of them.