PAY IT FORWARD FOR LOCAL CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!

PAY IT FORWARD FOR LOCAL CHILDREN

FEELING BLESSED AND PRIVILEGED TO HAVE OPPORTUNITY
          Today I had the wonderful opportunity and privilege to help children at my son's school with the Holiday Shoppe.  For those of you who don't know what the Holiday Shoppe is, it is where the children are sent in with money from their parents to buy presents for their mother, father, sister, brother, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, pets, teachers, themselves.  They get to spend whatever is sent in by their parents/guardians.

I AM EXCITED TO HELP WITH HOLIDAY SHOPPE
           Why am I so excited about helping with this?  First of all, the children are so excited to buy presents for their loved ones.  Second, the children spend so much time deciding on just the right present for each family member.  Third, I believe the magic of Christmas/Holiday is giving, not getting.

VALUE THINGS OR PEOPLE
      Our society has become so concerned about what are you going to give me.  An example of this is the following.  At a local parade, the children were given small gifts.  However, they were asking for ipads, phones, etc.  These were 8 and 10 year old children, REALLY!!!!!!!!!  What are we teaching OUR children?  And I will be the first to admit that I have taught my children to value THINGS and not PEOPLE for awhile.   What are we going to get our children when they are 14 and 16, if they already have all of the game systems, phones, ipads, etc. when they are 8 and 10 years old?

MOST OF DAY AT HOLIDAY SHOPPE
         So, I spent almost all day today, helping the children at the Holiday Shoppe.  I am also spending half of the day tommorrow doing the same thing.  Then next week, I am running my daughter's Christmas Shoppe for two days.  Sorry, I got off track!  My brain goes a mile a minute!  I have a hard time typing as fast as I think!  LOL!  Anyways, back to the Holiday Shoppe at my son's school.  So there were a group of us, who helped each individual child walk through the store and buy items for their designated family members.  OH, by the way, items range from 25 cents to $10.  The children have an envelope with who they are suppose to buy for, how much for each person and total amount that they have!  Other adults helped the children wrap their presents.  Kids had a blast shopping!

HOW MANY?
               Does every child have money?  NO!  Is it because their parents don't love them?  I don't think that is it at all!  Is it because the family doesn't celebrate the holidays?  Maybe some?  My guess is that some families just don't have any money for food, they are homeless or struggling financially.  Well guess how many children out of 6 classrooms (I think) did not have any money?  GUESS, I BET YOU WILL BE SURPRISED!!!!!!  There were 25 children!  That absolutely brought me to tears today!  Now the company who provides the merchandise does provide a ticket for children with out money to spend $1.  THAT IS GREAT!!!!!  So this was bothering me the whole time I was there and even when I came home to take a break.  I thought about giving each child some money that I had in my pocket, but I didn't have enough money for each child plus the children tommorrow!  UGH!  My wish at that point was that I could give each child enough money to buy for their entire family!  I thought about providing a couple of kids with money for presents, but then HOW could I leave out the other children? 

GIRL MELTED MY HEART (By the way, this is not the little girl!)
             

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT??????  A child walked in and sat on the floor waiting for the others to shop so that she could spend her $1 ticket!  Well, I looked into this little girls eyes and it just brought me to tears!  My heart said that I had to help this child buy presents for his siblings!  By the way, the whole time I was hoping that this little girls parents didn't get mad at me for giving her money to buy for her siblings!  Well, this little girl and I started talking and she told me about the siblings she had and how old each of them were! I let her pick out presents for each of her siblings!  By the way, the point of this post is NOT to get credit, praise or anything!  MY ONE WISH is that people would contact me to get money to help the children in this local school buy presents for their family!!!!!!!!!  If anyone is willing to send money to go toward these 25 children from today and who knows how many tommorrow, then message me and I will tell YOU the school so that you can send it directly to the school!  I just want to try to respect the school's privacy and these children's privacy!!!!!!

PAY IT FORWARD!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for listening to me babble!  This MEANS THE WORLD to ME and THESE CHILDREN!!!!!!

MY FAVORITE SONG-RASCAL FLATTS-MY WISH!      
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhrCc8VCHns

GOD BLESS YOU

xoxoxoxoxox

Kimfitnesschic