2017 marks the 19th year running of Hands of Hope’s flagship event – Christmas 4 Kids. This community event was held in the at Unidus Community Centre, on Saturday, 2nd December 2017 from 10am to 2pm, and welcomed all visitors with free entry.
Despite rain forecasts previously, the weather held up wonderfully for the event, with sunny skies overhead as the guests arrived at the Unidus Community Centre. This year, we recorded more than 600 residents of local suburbs, consisting of around 200 adults and 400 children, in attendance for Christmas 4 Kids 2017.
As an opening act to the event, Toli Mahina from Mamana Academy of Tongan Arts and Culture presented a beautiful song performance, followed by a unique Tongan dance, performed with 20 other Tongan youths. Next, the children were led in a fun dance-along session by the Groundbreakaz. The stage programs ended with a duet song performance by Tim Ngugi and Deborah Lim from Hope Church Ablaze.
With more than 21 stalls at the event, the children were spoiled for choice to participate in games and activities such as the jumping castle, rock climbing, face painting, bop-along buddies, balloon twisting, tug of war and fishing game, to name a few. Every child was given a Christmas present sponsored by Hands of Hope. Parents and adults were invited to relax with complimentary coffee kindly sponsored by Wolff Coffee Roasters.
Everyone was treated to a free sausage sizzle over lunch, as well as a selection of desserts and sweet treats to top off the feed. Hands of Hope would like to acknowledge the following wonderful sponsors who generously donated food items and beverages for Christmas 4 Kids 2017 – Teys Services, BidFood, Coca-cola, Frucor, CTC Catering & Café and various Hope Church members.
The guests of honour this year included the Councillor of Calamvale Ward, Cr Angela Owen, and Councillor of Forest Lake, Cr Charles Strunk. In addition, Anglicare, Inala Youth Service, Queensland Ambulance & First Aids and Queensland Police Service also participated on that day to provide interactive activities and service information to the local communities. Hands of Hope would like to thank all the local councilors and community agencies for their ongoing support towards Christmas 4 Kids.
Last but not least, Hands of Hope would like to appreciate the 207 volunteers that helped both on the day and with the preparations prior the event. We can’t thank you enough for all your amazing works and time you invested to make this event possible!
Christmas 4 Kids has been running annually in order to generously bless children and families in the south-western suburbs of Brisbane and bring the Christmas cheer. You can be part of this by volunteering for the event on 1st Dec 2018. We hope and look forward seeing you next year.