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A.N.G.E.L.S. Outreach – Neighbors Helping Neighbors During
the Holiday Seasons
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
Twenty-two years ago, a
life was saved, promises were made and an agency was
founded. Twenty-two years later, thousands of families have
found a bit of comfort during the holiday seasons as a
result of those events and the A.N.G.E.L.S. Outreach
Program, which provides such comfort, continues its mission
of helping neighbors every Thanksgiving, Christmas and
Easter.
On September 28, 2017 the
A.N.G.E.L.S. Outreach will hold its annual fundraiser at
Caper’s Pizza Bar in order to bring even more holiday joy to
its Toledo-area neighbors.
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Angel Mia Flores |
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The unanticipated origins
of the program date exactly to September 26, 1995 when Lisa
Canales, now a Washington Local School Board member and
Democratic Party activist, went into labor with her third
child. Canales and her husband – parents of two young sons –
were expecting a daughter but had not yet selected a name
for the new-born. All had gone well during the pregnancy,
says Canales, without any sort of complications and, in
fact, the initial hours of labor also proceeded without any
problems. However, the situation changed after a couple of
hours and the labor brought on an unexpected pain to Canales
– a pain that the attending physician recognized
immediately. That recognition, recalls Canales, seemed to
panic the doctor who shouted to his colleagues in the
delivery room “we’re losing this kid.”
The doctor had diagnosed
the problem as umbilical cord prolapse – a condition that
disconnects the umbilical cord from the uterus while the
fetus is still in the womb. When this occurs, the fetus is
deprived of oxygen and it is only a matter of minutes until
the life of the unborn is threatened.
“Now, I’m scared,” Canales
recounts, as she realized that her daughter might not have a
chance at life. After taking what few precautions he could
in the delivery room, the doctor shut down the procedure and
got everyone relocated to the operating room, telling
Canales to concentrate. All the while he was counting the
seconds on his watch as he got staff and patient moving,
trying to minimize the time the baby would be without
oxygen. The odds of survival, as Canales would later
discover, were slim.
As she was being wheeled
into surgery, a distraught Canales offered a prayer: “Please
send your angels to save my daughter’s life and if you do, I
will spend my life giving back to the community.”
When she came out of the
anesthesia, Canales found out from her own mother that her
daughter was alive but there was little else she could
immediately discover. It wasn’t until two days later that
the doctor told her: “I think she’s going to be okay.” To
which Canales replied: “I know she’s going to be
okay.” The doctor then informed Canales of just how
precarious a situation the little girl had faced: “There’s
no medical reason she’s here and healthy,” he said.
The promise Canales had
made prior to the birth did not go unfulfilled. Within days
of the arrival of Angel Mia Flores, Canales had started
A.N.G.E.L.S. Outreach and within two months, Thanksgiving
holiday baskets were being donated to needy Toledo
residents. Over the following 22 years, well over 5,000
baskets on Thanksgiving, Christmas and, in recent years,
Easter have been delivered.
Canales says her program
is unique for two reasons. “We are neighbors helping
neighbors,” she says. “We don’t ask for income statements or
proof of income.” And second, “We will hand deliver our
baskets – we take the embarrassment of standing in line out
of the equation.” This year, she adds, Toledo Police Chief
George Kral, a long-time supporter of the program, has
volunteered to have some of his patrol cars deliver the
baskets.
As for Angel Mia, her
birth 22 years ago this week, was only the start of her
involvement with the program. An Emergency Medical
Technician (EMT) with ProMedica Air and Mobile, Flores is
vice president of A.N.G.E.L.S. Outreach and has been helping
the effort for as long as she can remember – assembling
baskets, shopping for supplies. She began to understand the
reason for her mother’s promise before she was 10 years old
and started helping with deliveries shortly after that. As
vice president, she is now an integral part of the planning
and operations of the program – a program that has no paid
staff.
The Wine Tasting With
A.N.G.E.L.S. will take place at Caper’s Pizza Bar on
Thursday, September 28 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. For ticket
information contact 419-917-5289 or 313-515-1075. |
