A Holiday Story

At Peace4Kids we recognize that the Holiday season can be a difficult reminder for our kids of the family that is missing from their lives. It is for this reason that we strive to make the Holiday season at Peace4Kids a time of great celebration. For the past eight years we have had our very own youthful Holiday celebration, where the kids are given new gifts and get to take a picture with Santa. Though these things seem small and insignificant the impact is immeasurable:

Rita is 21 years old. She pulls out an old photo album filled with pictures. The nostalgia in her smile reminds me of grandmother recalling her youth and sharing it with her grandchildren. “I was 15 years old here and this was the day that you took us to the beach.” She says. It was a picture that I vaguely remembered, but Rita recites a list of recollections I find impossible to register. She flips through her album page after page. Each page has a memory attached to it as vivid as the photos she points to. On the last page of the album is a collection of pictures of her with Santa Claus… six years worth to be exact. As I stared at the six photos on the page in amazement, I was struck by how Rita had changed over the years.

“It’s crazy, huh?” she mutters. “These are the only yearly photos I have of myself growing up.” She points to a photo and laughs. “I can’t believe how fat I was right here.” She touches the picture carefully and then takes a deep breath as she closes her album up and puts it back into the storage box she got it from. As she puts the album away I take stock of all of the artifacts in her new apartment. There are framed items on the walls, a few toys in a box, and stuffed animals on her bed. I recognize a stuffed animal on the bed and pick it up. “I can’t believe you still have this!” I exclaimed. It was a miniature reindeer stuffed animal that was donated about six years ago. Every kid in our program received one of them as an additional holiday token to go along with their other gifts. “I have kept everything.” She says as she takes the reindeer out of my hand and neatly places it back on her bed. “If it wasn’t for Peace4Kids this new apartment wouldn’t have much in it.”

As Rita continues the tour of her new apartment she shows me item after item of things she got from our program. The items on the wall are framed certificates of classes she completed with Peace4Kids. She points out that all of her furniture are items which have been donated by our volunteers. As the tour continues I realize how much I have taken for granted in my own life. How many times as a child I scoffed at the annual school picture, or broke a gift that someone bought for me without a single care. Rita had taken nothing for granted and her home was alive with valuable memories because of it. I guess our memories are the footprints to our possibilities and Rita was surely taking advantage of each step.

Since that day I have taken better stock of the things that define my life. The Holiday party is still a youthful celebration with silly pictures of Santa and seemingly insignificant gifts. However, now I realize that every gift and picture is a brand new memory. And as our kids create their own memories at Peace4Kids my life seems to have just a little more possibilities under the soft chill of the Los Angeles holiday air.

Peace4Kids would like to thank all of those who helped to make this year’s memories possible at our annual Holiday Party. So with gratitude we acknowledge Asylum Visual Effects, Peninsula Montessori School, Houlihan, Lokey, Howard and Zukin, Hollywood CPR, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School students, New Creation Choir and our very own Peace4Kids volunteers, Alyson Reed, Liz Parker, Shonda McFarland, Lori Trella, Pauline Fukuwa, Ashley Martinez, Shirly Mahgerefteh, Giovanni Taylor, and Randy Persinger.

Please take a moment and consider making a gift to Peace4Kids. Your tax-deductible contribution will help us work closer with foster and at-risk youth, and guide their journey into adulthood. It is the only way we will be able to expand and sustain our programs.