Celebrating Joy With The Children
On December 13th, The RISE Board of Directors escorted 26 people to Casa Vida Nueva para Niños, for its annual Christmas trip. The people learned about the Home from a presentation by Elias (Director); were given a RISE Scholastic Achievements presentation by Reed and saw the awarding of RISE T-shirts to new high school students.
A special award was given to Yomara, who just graduated from high school and enrolled in college. She was given her very own quilt, with her name and year of graduation, made by the Sewing Bee group of Desert Hills Lutheran Church.
They also met the 4 college students who were funded by RISE. Each gave a talk on how grateful they were for RISE in helping fund their higher education. Afterwards, the group toured the facility; had lunch (one little boy gave the prayer); watched 4 dance performances from the children; then witnessed the children opening their Christmas gifts.
Plus a special event was given by the “Cookie Lady,” Maureen Brealey, who made personalized cookies for 31 children. Each cookie had the child’s name on it – very special.
Scroll through the photos below and then open up the two videos: the children opening up their gifts, and giving one of the 4 performances they created just for our visit.
It was a fabulous day!
