A Day With The Indigent Kids

The smiles, the giggles, I will never forget. And I'm sure so will the indigent kids, to whom that day was dedicated.

The Freeman Foundation, in which I am a new member of (*grin), last Saturday treated 48 indigent kids to an early Christmas party in Family Park, Talamban.

Those kids were handpicked from the different parts of Cebu City and outside it.

Dubbed as Adopt an Angel: A Christmas Gathering of Street Children, the foundation with its 20 members gave those kids truly enjoyable moments, that would definitely be etched in their young minds. That was actually the target of the event.

As early as 6 in the morning that day, the kids who come from Minglanilla, Talisay City, Mambaling, and other parts of Cebu City, gathered at TF administration building where they were served their breakfast.

And before they were brought to the party place, we, acting as their mommies and daddies for the day, garbed each of them with a white T-shirt and a pair of red short pants. They looked really cute in their "uniform."

At the wide playing field of Family Park the fun began. We grouped them into four: bird, cow, cat, and dog for the parlor games: coin relay, sack race, tug of war, among many others. And we were the "active" facilitators. It was exhausting but fun. If someone in the group dreamed of becoming a grade school teacher I'm sure that dream died instantly. What an "extraordinary" job grade school teachers have. Pardon us if not one of us want to be extraordinary.

After giving them their prizes and gifts, as in loads of them, we sent them home (I mean the drivers). Some of them left a good portion of their Jollibee lunch for their mothers (makahilak sad ta).

The kids’ smiles as they brought with them the gifts and the newly-acquired experience were so wide. Seeing them so happy with what they just went through was like "Yo! We did it!"

And because we did it successfully we treated ourselves to a relaxing weekend in a beach resort in Argao .

Actually, we went there to plan for the next year's projects, which include tree planting (pak-pak!) and mostly visits to home cares and children's hospital.

Hahay....exhausting but rewarding.