Viral Views Bring in Angel Tree Toys
Normally on social media, when a post goes “viral” it’s an ultimate accomplishment, like hitting a game-winning home run. But when that post results in blessing hundreds of deserving children at Christmastime, that’s even better!
That is what happened when Kathaleen Mallard posted a series of videos about the Army’s Angel Tree program on her TikTok account. She initially didn’t expect so many “likes” from across the country and even around the world, resulting in donations to the Angel Tree program promoted by the corps in Henderson, North Carolina.
The result is evidence of the influence of young adults through social media.
“I actually began doing this last year, when my mom was stationed in Winston-Salem,” Kathaleen says. During Christmas 2023 she produced videos from that area command’s Angel Tree program, which obviously set the stage for an unprecedented response to this year’s effort—now in Henderson with her mom’s transfer last June.
“Kathaleen was posting behind the scenes videos about the Angel Tree online,” says Major Beth Mallard, Kathaleen’s mom and Henderson Corps officer. “One video I clicked on had 123,000 likes and more than one million views. We started getting presents from all over the country.”
The bubbly 22-year-old isn’t keeping up with vital statistics about her followers, but she figures that “likes” and “comments” have come from most, if not all, of the nation’s 50 states.
“I do know that toy donations have come from generous people in Washington State and California, which would probably be the farthest donation origin,” she says.
Her nationwide donors typically purchase and ship the toys for their adopted angels through Amazon. Kathaleen’s grandfather, Major Butch Mallard, makes a morning run each day to collect the toys and deliver them to the Army’s distribution center, located in the former family store in downtown Henderson.
Kathaleen is a senior this year at the prestigious Stanford University in California. From high school she applied to several universities, although she admits her application to Stanford was done on a lark, not believing she had a legitimate chance of acceptance. When Stanford’s letter came, she recalls her shock to discover her four-year education at Stanford would be on a tuition-free scholarship!
“It was a no-brainer for me!” she says, with a measure of glee.
Kathaleen will graduate in June with a double-major in biology and English with an emphasis in creative writing.
She was well into her biology major when COVID hit the planet. Secluded in quarantine, she discovered a love for creative writing and even completed a novel, which she released on TikTok, chapter by chapter. She describes her fictional “Queen of Ash” as a “young adult fantasy,” which amassed a following of 150,000 readers. She reasons that many of those followers are part of the hundreds of thousands interested now in her “behind the scenes” updates on the Army’s Angel Tree process.
Her newfound love of writing and editing led her to refocus on the second major. She plans to go on to graduate school for her master’s degree, looking to a future career in publishing. Two other novels, completely unrelated to her first work, are already in her repertoire. Kathaleen’s exceptional writing and production skills have contributed to the success of the Angel Tree video presentations.
The six Angel Tree podcasts she created for the 2024 Christmas season drew about two million views. They can still be viewed by logging onto the Henderson Corps website.
Each of the six installments present phases of the Angel Tree process—application, adoption, gift purchasing, processing, and distribution. The final episode even follows a parent who agreed to be interviewed and filmed by Kathaleen on the actual distribution day just before Christmas.
Aside from the obvious bonus of receiving toy donations from across the country, by far the greater benefit goes to countless Salvation Army units in all four USA territories. Kathaleen’s legion of followers who now have a more complete understanding of the Army’s Angel Tree ministry are thus more likely to take part locally.
There are too many comments for Kathaleen to answer each one, but she tries.
One follower wrote: “This is amazing! We’ve done Angel Tree for 20 years and always wondered what happened next.”
Another grateful comment says: “As a single mom who gets help for Christmas, thank you for doing this.”
And from across the world Down Under: “This is wonderful. We need this in Australia!”