| Christmas Smiles |
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An Orphan Smiles would like to make the Christmas Holidays a special time for all the children that we assist. In Ukraine, there are two special "Holiday" celebrations. The first celebration is called St. Nicholas' Day which is on December 19th. St. Nicholas Day, not Christmas, is the usual gift-giving day in Ukraine. On the eve of this night, we hope the caretakers will be able to hide a gift for each of the children in their rooms, and when the children awake, they can look for their "gift". The second celebration is on New Year's Day when Father Frost (Ded Moroz) comes with the big red bag and hands out gifts similiar to Santa (December 31/January 1). During the years of Soviet domination, Father Frost was introduced to Ukraine as a non-Christian replacement for St. Nicholas. Ukrainians enjoy a secular Christmas on December 25 and their Church celebration on January 7. An Orphan Smiles is collecting donations for our Christmas Smiles Fund for each orphanage - Kiev Orphanage 12, Tsurupinsk Children's Home and Mykolaivka Internet along with the Graduate Support Center. Our hope is to provide enough funding to provide a special Holiday dinner and celebration at each orphanage. Additionally, if funding allows we would like to provide a special gift to each child. Because of the planning involved and the time it takes to ship donations, the AOS Christmas project is essentially a year round collection and donation effort. We actively accept donations all year long to provide for Christmas. We plan to ship by the end of September to ensure parcels are received in time.
Christmas Smiles Donation using Paypal: OR Check Donation: Mail your check to: (Use Memo line to indicate Donation type) An Orphan Smiles, Inc. 2011 Christmas Smiles "On Their Way"
An Orphan Smiles has two project planned for the 119 kids presently at Mykolaivka Internat. First is Christmas Stockings that will be given to the kids on St. Nicholas Day on Dec 19. A HUGE Thank you to Vicki and her extended family for shopping the clearance sales, assembling, and shipping these wonderful treats. The second project is our Photo Album project for the New Year's Celebration Gift. Each Myko kid will receive a personalized photo album containing several photos of themselves. There are many empty pages that we can continue to send them photos and sponsors can send photos and they will have a special place to keep these photos. Each photo album was placed in a ziplock bag with a pair of socks, a pair of undewear, a pen and pencil, fruit snacks, winter hats for the girls, and some of the boys got gloves, some got little footballs, and everyone got a Candy Cane.
 HUGE THANK YOU to Kelly and her team of scrapbook artists for making ALL the albums!!!! Those that helped Kelly included Grace, Tara, Dan, Maggie and the "Scarlet Sweethearts" Red Hat Club!!! HUGE undertaking to design over 100 albums! Each album had the child's name in both English and Russian. No two albums were alike and both the front and back were done. Really Amazing!! 2010 Christmas Smiles "Delivered"Mykolaivka Internat
For Father Frost's visit on New Year's Eve, many volunteers have created Holiday Gift Bags, personalized for each of the children based on age and gender. The Gift Bag contains toothpaste, a toothbrush, a washcloth, a pair of socks, several bags of edible treats and a toy or article of clothing. (i.e. puzzle, lego set, doll, makeup set/nail polish set for older girls, t-shirt/baseball hat/flashlight set for older boys). Thanks to a collective effort of all the KIDS sponsors at Mykolaivka Internat, $500 was also sent in December for a Holiday Meal and Celebration. Kiev Orphanage 12 At Orphanage 12, An Orphans Smiles also provided individual and personalized "goodie" bags for the 34 boys and girls at O12. These special bags include items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, socks, granola bars, popcorn, candy, and hot chocolate. Tsurupinsk Children's Home Tsurupinsk is a larger orphanage with 118 physically and mentally challenged children. An Orphan Smiles accumulated two large boxes of gifts (dolls, coloring books, crayons, cars, paint set, etc) which were sent to the Tsurupinsk Children's Home in time for Christmas. In addition to this the Paterson family sent gift bags as part of the "Blankets for Brian" project. The boxes sent averaged approximately 30lbs each and were filled with individual bags containing a toothbrush, comb, crayons, gloves, scarf, candy, a stuffed animal and a blanket. "Blankets for Brian" is in memory of their son. His friends and family gathered and assembled 23 boxes total to be shipped to Ukraine. Graduate Support Center An Orphan Smiles also is thinking of our struggling orphans during the Holidays who have graduated from the orphanage system and may be alone for the Holidays. The GAP sponsors have sent individual gifts to many of the students and An Orphan Smiles has arranged for a small monetary Christmas gift for unsponsored GAP students. Please consider a donation to our Christmas Smiles Fund. Sadly, many of these children have never received a gift in their lifetime. |
Vicki and her sister have created goodie "stockings" for the children to be "hidden" on Saint Nicholas' Day on December 19th.
