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Nous du Collège - N 292 - Février 2020 Comité d’Activités Sociales 99
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CAS Christmas at Albert Nassar foundation

“Volunteers don’t necessarily
have the time but they have the
heart.”

21 December 2019
“Bringing a smile on a child’s face
gives a deep satisfaction which
cannot be expressed in words, just
experienced.” Let me take you
through what happened during
those couple of hours that made
this day so special. But first allow
me to give out some background
information:

As many already know, every year
the students of “Notre Dame
de Jamhour” engaged in the
“CAS” movement organize a much more. That’s how I saw it. We, as a team, were
huge Christmas event, welcoming more than 500 making someone’s day better with a simple action.
children. Given the circumstances of our country, At the end of these three activities (decorating
we weren’t able to do that this year; that’s when ginger cookies, making their own ornaments and
the “Foundation Albert Nassar” so graciously and the Christmas hat decorating), the kids headed to
kindly asked us to host their annual Christmas party the show that we and another group of people had
where they welcome a little over 100 kids. We prepared for them. I stayed a little to help clean
obviously could not decline such an offer! For the the room where the activities had taken place, and I
next 2 weeks we did the best we could to make was just filled with joy, knowing that although these
sure these kids had the best Christmas party they kids were going through hard times at home, we
could ever dream of. still managed to put a huge smile on their faces and
make them experience “la magie de Noel” even if
You are probably wondering how we organized it’s only for a couple of hours. I once read a quote
everything in such a short amount of time. Here’s that said, “The light in a child’s eyes is all it takes to
how it went. Volunteers were divided into 3 groups; make Christmas a magical time of the year,” and it
each of these groups was responsible for a different could not be truer. It has opened my eye to the fact
activity for the kids. I was in the group of the that Christmas is about the little things: the smile
“Christmas hats” - pretty self-explanatory; each kid on these kids’ faces and the light in their eyes are
had to decorate a Christmas hat however his heart enough to make anyone happy. We don’t need a
desired. I had to help them glue the shapes on their big number of presents and huge fancy parties,
hats. You’d probable think, “Oh what a lame job”; to spread the Christmas spirit. The experience we
but no, I did not view it as a tedious task; quite the shared is hard to explain in words.
opposite. The interaction, the excitement in these
kids’ eyes, and the joy these kids showed were You are probably thinking I’m exaggerating but I’m
remarkable. These kids I had just met made me genuinely not. They (the kids) also remind us every
feel like I’d known them forever, telling me about year about the true meaning of Christmas: love.
their day, about how happy and thankful they are, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from
about what they’d done in the previous activity and God and whoever loves has been born of God and