Christmas, time to share the happiness

It is an annual event for Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu Hotel to held a children Christmas party, this is one of the corporate social responsibility event. I was in my second week. Therefore, was responsible for the children and their guidance transportation, games and choir from their residence to Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu Hotel for Christmas Lunch Party prepared specially for them. They are children from Bukit Harapan, a non-profit, voluntary organisation for the physically and mentally handicapped children.

I called the centre for confirmation of number of people that will be attending the event, because some of them are handicap, few of the guidance would need to drive them to the hotel. I called up few of them transportation company requiring for a quotation and at the end finalised the time, date and venue for the transportation. The games and choir was easy as I got a lot of help from my colleagues, and we planned to do it ourselves.

On that day (23^rd December 20011), I make sure that the bus arrive their residence on time and send them to the hotel safely. Upon arrival, we have a welcome team waiting for them at the entrance. We bring them up to the event room (Mabul Room), and we start with a speech from our MarComm Manager, Jocelyn Banding. After that we had lunch. While everyone was having lunch we started the preparation for the games. At that time I had pass my duty to a colleague of mine, as I am taking pictures for the event. There were 4 games and it all went well. Next was the carolling, it sounds beautiful and then we had the gift giving from Santa and Satarina. All the children we’re so happy. Some even went up and gave Santa a hug. To express their gratefulness to the hotel, the children from Bukit Harapan sang Christmas songs for us. It was so touching and it is worth everything trouble that we’ve been through for this event. When all is done all of us gathered and took a picture in the lobby and sent them off.

This is my first time experiencing close contact with children with disabilities. I am glad to have this experience. As it touched me a lot, having to know that there are more people in this world that needs help from people like us. All they want is some attention and a little bit of appreciation. Give hands once in a while, this will make both party happy and everything will pay off when you see their smile.