Pinellas County Foster Children Given a Good Dose of Christmas
Pinellas County Foster Children Given a Good Dose of Christmas
Clearwater: On December 4th, the gymnasium of Clearwater Academy International hummed with holiday cheer. 280 of Pinellas County's Foster Children plus their parents 68 families in total - participated in the 22nd Annual Foster Children's Christmas Celebration produced by Cherish the Children.
While foster parents picked up the gifts to be wrapped and placed under their Christmas trees including stuffed animals from Build-A-Bear, backpacks with wheels, videos, sunglasses and books - their children ate snacks and played on Clearwater Academy's swing set and jungle gym.
But there was one more highlight Santa Claus.
One little boy's meeting with Santa caught event organizer Marsh Friedman's attention right away.
"His eyes were hardly higher than the registration table. He looked across the room and spotted Santa and his eyes got very big. He ran over joyously yelling for Santa and planted himself on Santa's lap it was like he could hardly believe his luck that Santa would be there for him."
But there was also something for the parents too a large sheet cake donated by the Church of Scientology and 1,000 flowers donated by Russ Phillip of Russ Wholesale Flowers out of Elmhurst Illinois were arranged in order to thank the foster parents for their dedication.
Friedman also wanted to thank the sponsors of the event the Cherish the Children Foundation, the Church of Scientology, Clearwater Academy and PostcardMania, concluding, "Humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard once wrote: When children become unimportant to a society, that society has forfeited its future.'
"Yet the foster children in our country have typically experienced more trauma in their short lives than most adults, and it's for this reason that our Cherish the Children Foundation and all its volunteers are thankful for the opportunity to give these children the experience of Christmas that every child deserves."
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