Spreading Christmas Blessings! by DL Larson

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Several weeks before our yearly Caroling party, my granddaughters asked me to do a fundraiser for the homeless. I told them I had a better idea ... THEY could do a fundraiser instead! So our caroling party transformed into something extra special this year. The girls and their mom did some research and decided they wanted to help the Pads Homeless Shelter in Ottawa, a town close to our home. The girls made special invitations explaining their project and these were inserted into our caroling invitations and from there things mushroomed!

My granddaughters had listed the items the shelter needed: laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and paper products! The night of the party, as our friends stomped through the snow to reach our front door they not only hauled in tasty treats to share, they lugged in their offerings for the homeless shelter. Alex and Kylie were in shock at such an outpouring of gifts.

The girls collected 970 dryer sheets, 380 loads of detergent, 3,318 napkins, 1,270 paper plates, 698 plastic forks, 494 plastic knives and 494 plastic spoons. We know, 'cause we counted them!! A great 2nd grade math project.

On December 21st, we delivered our presents to the Ottawa Pads Homeless Shelter. We weren't sure what we would find and it delighted us to walk into a clean and bright place for folks to stay. The second picture is Alex and Kylie with the resident official who was just coming off her night shift at the shelter.

Our project isn't finished yet, we will send pictures and thank yous to all those who helped make it such a success. We talked about what we would say in our thank you letter as we munched pizza. Kylie said, "I really feel the Christmas spirit now!"

We laughed, agreeing! The Christmas Spirit was all around us!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Til next time ~

DL Larson