ROCKWELL — When the Rockwell Police Department initially planned its participation in the Angel Tree program, Chief Cody Trexler said that they planned to adopt 51 children and ask the community to support them. When the first round of community donations came around, Trexler realized that they could support eight more children. A few days later, the police department received even more community support and added two more families.

Trexler said that initially he shared the call for support on social media. Even though the post was removed just a few days later, the support had grown enough that all of the angels were spoken for.

“We originally started with 51 kids, 20 families. All of those were picked up by the community in the first two days, so we reached out and brought in more families,” said Trexler.

Most of the donors were individual members of Rockwell’s community, but Trexler said that a few organizations stepped up to participate as well. Those groups included the Rockwell Civitan Club, the Register of Deeds office and workers from the Powles-Staton Funeral Home.

This was the first year the Rockwell Police Department participated in the Angel Tree program as an organization, and Trexler said that he doesn’t see their participation ending anytime soon.

“I don’t see it going anywhere. I don’t think we’ll get to a point where we can support all 800 from the Salvation Army, but with this year’s participation I don’t see any reason to stop,” said Trexler.

The tree itself was inside the department’s building, and donors were asked to drop off the gifts at the building as well. Pick up of the gifts began on Monday.

“There are a lot of tears that have been had here, and its been wonderful to be able to do this and be a part of this,” said Trexler.