Alakina & Stella's Charity Event

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, two of my little granddaughters were greatly disturbed. They both were saddened by the bleak scenes of total devastation and expressed their interest in trying to help the children in New York and New Jersey.

Aja, their mother (my daughter) is one of these people who sits on three committees in our town and is actively involved with her kids schools as a room mother and in the PTA. As a single mother, she lives on a very limited income, spends no money on herself but ensures that her precious children are engaged in Dance classes, Violin, Gymnastics and various sports. She has no time to herself and on top of everything, she is a full-time student!

She told me of an idea she had. Just one week after the hurricane, she spent over 3 hours on the phone back East trying to find any organization that she and her children could help as a result of this terrible event. Finally, she found a school in Brooklyn, the Red Hook District, that was devastated. In fact, the morning she got ahold of an office worker at the school, she was told that they had just gotten their power back on only moments before her call. She told the lady that she spoke with that her girls wanted to hold a charity event and raise something that the effected children would need and like. They came up with the idea to collect Coloring Books, Crayons and Story Books for the school. Since money really means nothing to 5 & 6 year old little girls, this was a perfect solution.

So Aja got to work. She set the date of Dec. 5th to host an Open House from 3-6 PM at her home  where children in our community could come, drop off their donations and then decorate a Sugar Cookie to take home. She made flyers and her girls took them to church and their schools. Needless to say, it was a HUGE success.

Our town is AMAZING! It's very small, but has a huge heart. Everyone is service oriented and people showed up whom we didn't even know! So far they have collected 116 boxes of crayons, 74 Coloring Books, 49 Story Books, numerous Markers, Pencils, Pads of Paper and Flash Cards! She even received some cash to help with shipping!

My heart is warmed by the generosity of so many. I am so proud of my sweet daughter who didn't just "talk" about helping, she stepped up and took action! I can only imagine how excited those sweet little children in New York will  be when they receive several boxes from some precious little children far away in a little town called Midway Utah...This, my friends, is the true spirit of Christmas!