849 Ate Tracy and Her Student’s Santa Hat with Metro World Child

Written by Board Member, Ate Charmain Tan
Today was an early Christmas celebration for Teacher Tracy and her students. She teaches conversational Chinese to children from Ica and Xavier in different age groups. In line with the holiday season she wanted to teach her students the value of giving and sharing. She invited her 15 students and 15 children from Metro World Child for a festive holiday celebration. Our partnership started with Metro World Child in 2010 and we’ve had 24 events with them to date. Metro World Child is based in New York City and serves under privileged children around the world by ministering Sunday School services. These are often children who live in the roughest neighborhoods in metropolitan areas. Metro World Child Philippines partners with local churches reaching out to more than 20,000 impoverished and neglected children living in the slums. This afternoon we got the opportunity to spend it with children from communities in San Mateo, Rizal.
As we had lots of activities planned for the day the children arrived early at Club Filipino, located in San Juan. It was a 3-hour car ride for these children who eagerly waited for the day’s festivities. Santa Claus greeted them as they arrived. Teacher Tracy’s students started arriving bringing with them gifts that they were going to share with one another.
We first played an ice breaker game The Boat is Sinking for the kids to warm up to each other. We then grouped everyone into three. In each group was a mix of children from Metro World Child and Teacher Tracy’s students. They got to know one another by introducing themselves and talking about their favorite subject and favorite character. Some of the more popular characters mentioned were Big Dinosaur, Superman, Spiderman, and Batman. Most of the kids’ favorite subjects were math and arts. We then played Pass the Charades. All the groups formed a straight line. We gave an animal to the first person and the kid had to pass on the animal to the person behind him by acting out the animal. Everyone had to keep passing it on until it reached the last person who then had to guess what animal it was. It was hilarious as the kids tried their best to copy the action but the actions kept changing as it got to the end of the line. Some of the animal guess were far from the correct answer. The fastest team to give the correct answer got a point. The animals they acted were elephant, which was the hardest since they all had different interpretation of how to act out an elephant’s long nose. The others that followed were easier like kangaroo and bird. In the end it was group 4 who was able to guess the animals correctly in the shortest possible time.
We then got to watch the magnificent magic show by Kuya Kobe of The Salamangkero Group. He did some of his popular tricks like doves flying out of pouches and colorful scarves that keeps coming out. He also did a cool trick where he drew a face on a white board then all of a sudden the image was moving! The eyes were moving and the mouth was moving. The kids laughed as they kept convincing Kuya Kobe that the image is moving. He also called on Michael to help him out on his magic. He gave him a wand but when Michael held it up it kept breaking. The children kept laughing as Michael tried holding the wand probably but to no avail. Kuya Kobe also brought out a giant comb and a monkey costume for Michael and the adorable kids laughed and cheered. He then called Mishka to assist him in his finale. He asked her to hold the edge of a table and the table flew above the children. Mishka was so adorable as she giggled and held on to the box that Kuya Kobe gave her. The kids were dazzled as the table flew over them.
After the magic show we had our art workshop by our artist Kuya Robby. Kuya Robby is an art teacher for children. Since there was a Santa, he was going to teach the kids how to make elf hats and they were going to be Santa’s little elves for the day. After the fun workshop the kids wore their red and green hats and had photos taken with Santa. It was fun seeing the lovable children in their cute little elf hats standing by Santa.
The kids got to have their sumptuous buffet dinner. As it was a fun filled afternoon everyone had a huge appetite. They ate so much spaghetti, barbecue, and fried chicken. They got to enjoy different colored fruit punch and blue colored juice drinks.
Christmas would not be complete without presents. The children received so many gifts. As all the kids have been good boys and girls throughout the year, Santa called out each of their names to give them their gifts. They got toys and backpacks from Santa. They also received gifts from the families of Teacher Tracy’s students. In line with holiday sharing, we partnered Teacher Tracy’s students with the kids of Metro World Chlld and they handed them the rest of the gifts. They received Noche Buena gift packs, cupcakes, huge Christmas candy bags, cookies and treats in a Santa box, stuffed toys, shirts, and others. There were so many gifts that the kids had a hard time carrying them. They were so happy and they kept saying thank you. Teacher Tracy said one of the kids even said it was the first time she received a gift. It was heartwarming to see the smiles of the children who don’t get to have much. There were also boxes and boxes of food products to be shared to the other children in the community. As Christmas is a time of loving, sharing, and giving, we express our deepest gratitude for Teacher Tracy and the families of her students for sharing these wonderful gifts with the children. Christmas is also a time of being thankful and being appreciative of all the blessings we have received for the past year. It was privilege to be able share our blessings to these children.

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