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A local charity group is looking to reignite an old holiday tradition at the Smithville Housing Authority in an attempt to spread a little hope this season.

The group, Lighthouses and Angels, is restarting the Housing Authority’s yearly Christmas party, an event started by former Housing Authority director Jeanie Vaughn that provides free Christmas gifts and food as well as a visit from Santa Claus to children who live in the Housing Authority’s apartments.

The annual Christmas parties were held for more than two decades and stopped when Jeanie Vaughn retired as director of the Housing Authority in 1999 and when she passed away in 2007, her daughter, Suzy Vaughn, decided to restart her mother’s annual tradition and formed Lighthouses and Angels to raise the money for it.

“Some kids don’t have much and this is something my mom started doing a long time ago and it means a lot to me because that was Christmas for me” she said. “I want to make sure kids have something they hope for and something they can believe in every year. I want them to believe that hope is out there and there really is a Santa Claus.”

Vaughn said her group solicited letters to Santa from children in the Housing Authority after Thanksgiving and on Dec. 15 the group used money donated and gathered from fundraisers to go out shopping and purchased most of the gifts the kids requested — everything from video games to new socks.

The gifts were handed out at the group’s Christmas party Dec. 19.

This year, the group was able to provide Christmas gifts for 18 kids at the Housing Authority and they hope to make the Christmas party an annual tradition again with another event next year, said Debbie Shoaf, one of Lighthouses and Angels’ directors.

“We feel very blessed and honored to bring Christmas to these kids,” she said. “It’s something that happened for 25 years and hasn’t happened for a while.”

In addition to the children’s Christmas party, the group is also trying to start a similar event for seniors next year called the Golden Angels Tree to give out gifts to seniors in Smithville who don’t have family to spend Christmas with. Lighthouses and Angels is also looking into raising funds for annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for Smithville residents, Vaughn said, to spread their message of hope in town.

To learn more about Lighthouses and Angels or to help the organization, contact Shoaf at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Staff writer Michael Westblade can be reached at 389-6636 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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