Thursday, January 9, 2014

Christmas

December was a crazy month. I had all sorts of Christmas parties to attend and a lot of different events at work to go to. The best parts of the month had to be the Diversity Conference and the Holiday Gift Giving events at work.

The Diversity Conference was put on by Build's youth council. It was a conference that had different workshops and performances for the kids to be a part of and do. The workshops ranged from gentrification and the history of Chicago to cyber violence in today's world. These workshops were a great way for the kids to learn a lot about different issues in Chicago and around the world.
  Once the workshops were over the kids were able to show off their talents. That afternoon we had a lot of kids who got up on stage and played instruments, rapped, and sang. These kids are amazing performers. They blew me away with what they could do. 

(Diversity Conference)

  The next big event was the Holday Gift Giving event. We nominated families from our program that we felt would benefit from this event. Then families from each school were selected to come to the event (3-4 families from each school). We had everybody come to our office for dinner and to give gifts to about 70 kids. This event was a huge success. The kids and their families had a great time. It was really co to hear what people were thankful for and see everybody on staff do something for these kids at the holidays.
  There was one family that I was really happy to have there. They went through a tough holiday season. Two of the students I work with at Ericson lost their dad in October or early November. He was shot and killed. The two kids had a really tough time dealing with it. I wanted them to be a part of this event to let them know that there were people out there that care about them and will be there for them. I was really happy to see they had a good time and that they were making it through the hard times with the support of people who care about them. 

(Holiday Gift Giving)

  December turned out to be an amazing month in so many ways. I really enjoyed getting to be a part of these events and really get to know what people are going through. I would not change it for the world. I can't wait to see what is left for the rest of the year!

No comments:

Post a Comment