Our Christmas Donation 1999

May you have the Spirit of Christmas which is Peace,

the Gladness of Christmas which is Hope,

and the Heart of Christmas which is Love

The FESCO Family Crisis Shelter

Our Christmas Donation this year was voted on by the members and it was decided that we would make our donation to a Battered Womens and Childrens shelter. Our Donation was made on December 20,1999 to the Fesco Family Emergency Shelter in Hayward, California.

The donation was made by me (Cari) and some of our younger members. The members that came along with me were JoshuaPKL and StNicholas my sons, Josh and Nick who are eight and four years old and other members Christmas, Kelsey and Brandon who are also eight years old.

Here is a picture of Joshua, Kelsey Brandon, Nicholas and Joshua with some of the beanies for the donation.

I have to say that I think that this experience was very educational for all of the children. It made them realize that not everyone has what they have. It also made them realize that not all families are happy. This is an unfortunate thing but I think that they all appreciated their families just a bit more after the experience. I know that my children did. We talked a lot about the donation and the unfortunate children and families that were in this situation.

More pictures of the beanies and the kids. Can you tell they like beanies... especially on their heads...lol.

I do have to say thought that I don't think that I could have done it all without them. All four of them helped me count the beanies and plush toys, organize them and put them all in their cute little sleeping bags and their handmade outfits that we so generously donated to us by by Luvbears, Sue. They had so much fun deciding which outfit whould go on which beanie and which sleeping bag matched with each beanie. I bet you didn't know this but it is a real skill...lol.

Here is Joshua showing off the beautiful sleeping bags.

So finally the day arrives and we have 5 boxes of assorted beanies and plush toys for the donation. They were all carefully placed in their boxes until photo time came...then they were all over the children...lol.

In all we had 62 beanies, 42 beanie baby puzzle cards and 27 small plush toys (teenie beenies, pooh and Precious Moments). We had 28 handmade sleeping bags and 17 beanie outfits.

Here is a picture of all of the beanies We donated to the shelter.

There were 25 children in the shelter when we made our delivery so that meant that each child could have more then one toy. Any extra they had they were going to save for birthdays as this is a time when gifts are really needed but they are not available.

I wish that we were able to see the children and the look on their faces when they opened their stockings on Christmas to see their new beanies. The thought of the smiles in their faces are enough for me though.

All of the kids in front of the shelter. Yes, My children are in shorts and yes, It was December in California..lol. We do have cold weather here though...really.

When we arrived at the shelter we weren't allowed to go upstairs to see the families to protect them but we did get a tour of the downstairs and we got got to meet the director of the shelter Marilyn Harry. Marilyn was so grateful and gave all of the children big hugs and took a picture with them by the shelters Christmas tree.

Joshua, Kelsey and Brandon with Marilyn the Director of the shelter in front of their Christmas Tree. (Nicholas was playing shy)

I hope to next Christmas some of our other members are able to share the wonderful experience of making a donation.

How could we forget our Fat, Fat cat The kids wanted to make sure he made it onto the donation page...lol.

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Email: angelsofthemillennium_1999@yahoo.com