Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Very Special Christmas {Photo Recap}

 

It's always a joy to see our youth get involved in social causes and giving back to our community. Children need to be taught at an early age to be charitable and be kind and considerate toward other children. 

 

The holidays are a perfect time to inspire kids to spread a little magic by doing little random acts of kindness. Inculcating a sense of social responsibility in children protects them against bullying and harmful influences and attitudes. 

 

On Monday, December 23^rd teen pop star Cymia hosted her annual holiday charity at the Atlanta Ronald McDonald House. Cymia hosted a pajama holiday drive in an effort to add a little holiday cheer to the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. In addition to gifting the children with pajamas, Cymia performed her newly released Christmas anthem, "Very Special Christmas," along with some additional surprises.

We met several of the families staying at the house and we noticed they all have one thing in common. They're all humbled and extremely grateful for the  generosity of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Having a place to stay while you child is sick is priceless. 

People are just amazed with the incredible service they receive at the house.  Free rooms, meals, snacks, free Christmas toys, pj's and so much more.  During Christmas, volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House host a Santa workshop allowing families to shop for Christmas toys at no cost.

 

 

 

 

On our way out we met a little girl diagnosed with a brain tumor and is now undergoing chemotherapy. Understandably,  she was moody and very gloomy for not being able to spend time with her brothers and sisters during the holidays. Being sick sucks, and staying at a hospital for a prolonged time sucks even harder. The reality is that no one wants to be at the hospital during Christmas. It drains you emotionally and physically. It doesn’t matter if you are in the best hospital in the world, when you are sick all you want is to stay home. The little girl's mom was only able to communicate in Spanish and was feeling alienated and a bit intimidated for not being able to understand or communicate her child needs to the personnel at the house. Just the mere fact that she was able to have a conversation with me in Spanish was a breath of fresh air and you could see how this made the little girl happy. Finally, there's someone else besides her mom that she can talk in Spanish. You could clearly notice a huge difference on her mood. All of the sudden she was smiling and laughing, because she could finally understand the conversation between two people. This got me thinking that as a Latina there's so much more that I can do for people like them. There are so many Hispanic families in hospitals who could use a break or just a little conversation. There is nothing more cathartic than sharing your high and lows of the day with someone.  The more I think about it, the more positive I'm that I need to find more time to do this. I guess that unintentionally I just found a new goal I want to achieve for 2014. God work in mysterious ways...

We met with a McDonald representative and she is a huge fan of The Bluebird Patch. Yes, I'm blushing! Is hard for me to take a compliment :P

My little bluebirds were so happy to be able to donate their old Nintendo 3DS and 15 games to the Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Video Game Library.

 

So happy to finally be able to meet face to face our friend Chrystal of Enchanted PR. She is awesome!

Cymia is beautiful, caring and extremely talented. The Bluebird Patch is extremely proud of her for hosting a holiday drive. We wish her the best in the release of her new album.