CLEVELAND — The Salvation Army in Northeast Ohio is seeing an unexpected surge in Angel Tree donations this year, and they say TikTok is a major reason why.

The Angel Tree program allows donors to pick a tag representing a child in need and buy gifts for them. Recently, TikTok creators have been posting videos adopting "angels" and bringing their followers along as they shop — a trend now driving traffic to local stores.

"Social media has played an incredible role in helping us get the good news out about sharing toys this holiday season ," said Salvation Army spokesperson Joel Ashcraft.

Ashcraft says they first noticed the spike when calls started coming in from people looking for tags.

"We noticed it when we started having folks call us and starting to say, 'Hey, where is you

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