The Bladen County Department of Social Services has begun taking applications from residents who want help this year from the Bladen Journal Empty Stocking Fund.

The DSS staff will take applications through Friday, December 12. Anyone who is experiencing financial problems and feel they need assistance to ensure that there are Christmas presents for their children is invited to visit the DSS offices (located behind Bladen County Hospital in Elizabethtown) to make application. No applications are accepted at the offices of the Bladen Journal.

Families do not have to be eligible for Social Services to be eligible for Empty Stocking Fund assistance. They simply must be "in need." Factors such as loss of a job, an illness, or accident or death can cause families to have financial problems. The Empty Stocking Fund attempts to help such families provide Christmas presents for their children.

There are many families in Bladen who are in financial crisis, and that is why the staff of the Bladen Journal, the sponsors of the Empty Stocking Fund, urges everyone who can to give this Christmas season. The more money the Empty Stocking Fund takes in, the more children that can be helped.

All Empty Stocking Fund moneys go directly to children in the form of gift certificates purchased from area merchants. The certificates are for children only. No merchandise can be purchased for adults.

Donations to the Empty Stocking Fund are now being accepted at the Journal offices on Broad Street in Elizabethtown and will be through Thursday, December 18. Contributions can be hand delivered to the Journal offices, or mailed to P. O. Box 70, Elizabethtown, N. C. 28337. Checks should be made payable to the Empty Stocking Fund.

The Journal will publish a list of donors as the contributions come in.