Rancho Pinoy Celebrates Christmas
With the Very Special Children

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  Matthew 19:14

Divina Bauer and Jack Romero attended the Christmas party of the special children of the Unified School District of Rancho Cordova (USDRC) on December 22, 2005.

It was an awesome feeling to see these children so excited and happy while opening their gifts. At the same time, it was difficult to witness the condition of these kids and I know I should have prepared Divina before hand, because I could see her in tears, most of the times when some of the kids were not responding well. All Divina could do was
rub their heads and hope that her affection can travel through the sense of touch and all the way to their hearts.
The whole school staff was very grateful of what our organization was doing and we promised to be more active in 2006. We are already preparing for an Easter Hunt party with the school and Rancho Pinoy will be there to make it happen.

It was definitely an experience that makes you count your blessings. I can only imagine the lives of these children and their families, but someone once told me that all you are seeing is the outside and that deep inside these children, they live a very happy and peaceful life. They are truly the children of God. All throughout the day the teacher kept asking the kids to say thank you to us, but no one was responding because they were so busy opening their gifts and playing with their toys. I thought I counted 6 times that the teacher said, "say thank you," and finally as I turn my back and head to the door to leave, one child yelled, "Thank you Mr. Jack." We raised $746 for these children in ANP 2005 and we will continue to raise money in the future to support similar organizations. We did not spend that much in celebrating their Christmas party. Here's the breakdown ... Happy Meal hamburgers for the kids $39.90... Gifts for everyone, $129.93 ... Chocolate candy cane containers (courtesy of Divina Bauer), $26.00 ... One "Thank You" at the end of the day ... PRICELESS !

Please continue to send your donations to
P O Box 1592, Rancho Cordova, CA 95741-5741 USA
or call (916) 802-1120