By Laurel Parker West | Program Director
With your help, Baby Buggy has been able to bring some holiday cheer to families in the Rockaways who are still struggling to return to normalcy after SuperStorm Sandy. On Wednesday, we headed out to a wonderful holiday celebration for families who are anxiously awaiting the grand re-opening of a family support center where they are participants in Early Head Start and Fatherhood programs. The staff have been doing regular home visits and holding group "socialization" activities for the past year since their center was completely flooded and destroyed last October. The new center recently opened for staff and they are now holding occasional play groups and fatherhood workshops onsite until the classrooms are fully ready to be back up and running early next year. Many families and staff members are still not back in their severly damaged homes and apartments, so the nearly completed family support center has been a wonderful calm amid the ongoing storm.
The turnout at the holiday party was incredible and the day started with puzzles, legos, books, and other engaging play activities for the families. There was a fun holiday craft corner where moms, dads, and grandparents could help their children create adorable little snowmen and holiday scenes with stickers and markers. The staff decorated a wall of one of the classrooms with twinkling lights, wrapping paper, and a Christmas tree and took family portraits for everyone who attended. We then moved to another large classroom for a wonderful lunch and hot cocoa, funded by Baby Buggy's Sandy Family Assistance Fund. After lunch, the staff invited parents to come and pick-up large bags of holiday toys provided by Baby Buggy that were developmentally-appropriate for their specific children. Rather than having the children rip open the presents that day, we wanted the parents to be able to take these presents home so that "Santa" would be able to deliver presents on Christmas morning. The moms and dads were so grateful that they would be able to provide a holiday filled with fun and toys despite the ongoing economic challenges they are facing.
Baby Buggy is also supporting holiday gatherings for both children and staff at another long-time community partner in the Rockaways, Community & Family Head Start. We know that our wonderful partner, Angelina Alvarez-Davis, will be leading the carols and donning a fabulous Santa hat! Angelina is one of those inspiring, selfless, creative, passionate community leaders that Baby Buggy is especially lucky to be working with. We are delighted to share that Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine team agrees with us and featured Angelina in this month's holiday issue as someone who is beautiful on the inside and out!
Angelina grew up in the Rockaways and was devastated to see her mother's home damaged by the storm and by the unbelievable challenges faced by the families in her Head Start program and by her staff. She has been a true hero during the rebuilding process and leads by example. Angelina has faced even tougher battles in her life already, as she is a survivor of brain cancer and has even created her own nonprofit for families facing brain cancer as a side project! Angelina's e-mail address includes the word "mariposa," which is Spanish for butterfly. When I asked her about this during the thick of the Sandy recovery process, she told me that the butterfly has truly become her guiding metaphor in life and at work. She has helped her Head Start program transform into a beautiful butterfly that helps low-income children learn to fly as well. And, as you can see in her impressive O Magazine photo spread, (she received a day of pampering and a full makeover as a small thank you for being such a selfless community leader), you will agree that she is indeed a beautiful butterfly!
Thank you for your generosity and for helping bring a little holiday cheer to the wonderful families, children, and staff members of the community partners we serve in the Rockaways!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
