Extending our Helping Hand... Saturday, December 28

After sitting down with main manager of the children's orphanage, the wheels in my head started spinning in overdrive.  We -- Snickers and I -- had gone there today to drop off the Christmas dry food drive we had organised at Hulk's.  The idea was to simply drop it off and then leave, but then the manager wanted to show us around the orphanage.  This particular orphanage is the biggest in Cheonan and houses about 30 children, with their youngest being 3 and their oldest being high school students.  

Located on the top of a hill, I was instantly shocked to see it was a series of buildings and land all owned and operated by the orphanage.  And, after a tour of a few of the buildings, we then were told of the detailed programs they have running for the children -- it was so interesting.  Across from us, sitting at the same table, was a young mother and her two children, filling out an application to sponsor a particular little girl that she was oh so eager to point out to me on a massive display board that hosted all the pictures of all the children being boarded there.  It was this large display that sparked the wheels in my head.

Just recently there was a children's Chrismas charity drive in which people wanting to participate were asked to randomly pick a name of a child and prepare a small gift for them.  I had picked one name for myself and another name for one of club members who wanted to participate.  Locating the two names I had picked and seeing their faces definitely made everything feel so real to me.  There they were, no longer the similarly faces I had seen in some random photos from the charity event but up on a board of orphaned children. 

I pride myself for my tough-girl, I'm-a-boxer attitude and thick skin but at that point I felt as if I had turned into mush.  Next thing I knew it Snickers and I were planning a most random program and calling our friends to see if they would get in on it.  We could have made it open for our club members but this isn't a business thing nor are we doing it for any kind of recognition.  We just want to help and we knew we could rely 100% on our friends' word that they'd commit.