I have to share my favorite story from our epic holiday trip to Peru. But first, some background. This is Make a Miracle's 3rd Christmas, and our outreach in San Juan de Lurigancho, Peru was bigger than ever! We raised $8,250, crushing out $5,000 goal. This enabled us to do all we wanted to and more. This was the first time I got to join in the fun, and I was joined by fellow board members Jack Canouse, Eric & Shannon Smothers, Dennis McNulty and Chuck Latona. In one short week we:
gave out 52 huge gift baskets
hosted 2 parties for our Star Kids Clubs
hosted a party at Pat's Place
hosted a party at Los Pinos school
hosted a Quinceañera
sponsored a party in Paradise
sponsored 4 parties in other neighborhoods
built a house
awarded 6 new scholarships
gave out 300 pairs of shoes
gave out thousands of hugs!
This was all amazing and the children were so thankful and well behaved. Back to my favorite story from the week. Two of our scholarship students are sisters have twin 5 year old siblings. The little ones wrote a letter to Santa. He asked for a doll, and she asked for cars... each to give to the other one. This is what Christmas is about. Selflessness. Giving. Love. The letter says "I think that Carolyn is your helper, because she also brings gifts to the children. I hope that you bring a lot of gifts to her and her whole family." These kids have my heart, and in about 12 years I promise they will have a scholarship if they want to study. I brought these two sweeties exactly what they asked for, and on Christmas when they open their gifts, their sister promised to send me a video of it. That will be my favorite gift for sure. #WhatWouldSantaDo
Here is a video made by one of our students, Joel Camp. This was a party we hosted for 180 special needs kids and their parents. I would count this as a highlight of our whirlwind week.
As you can see, we had about 30 volunteers that helped us pull of this epic Christmas. A big thank you to all of them, especially Giovanna, Rachel, Jasson, & Mama Charo! We are already making plans to come back next year!!!