Every quarter, ACE staff plans a birthday celebration for your sponsored children. Like most birthday parties in the States, they are full of fun and games, and we make sure that each child gets a small gift. We are finding challenges accommodating the varying ages of the children. You can imagine what happens combining age groups at a party, like a six-year-old and a 13-year-old celebrating together. If they each get a bottle of bubbles as a gift, the six-year-old loves it while the 13-year-old may yawn and decide to start blowing bubbles in the six-year-old’s hair. Ah, fun times!
Because of this and the fact that we have a lot more teenagers in the program than we’ve ever had, we thought that instead of a trinket gift for this age group, we do something different going forward. Many of these young adults have never had experiences outside their area, so perhaps a field trip to the caves or an airport or a place like pantomime in Kingston, a unique theatre experience with a rich history, would be good. (Fun fact: one of the most famous Jamaican pantomime storytellers was Louise Bennett, who is affectionately honored at our own Galina Breeze Hotel with a conference room named after her – now you know!) The experiences, conversations, and time invested we think will be far more impactful now that these little ones are big teenagers.
We would love your thoughts on this topic. What do you do for your teenagers for their birthdays and how do you think that would translate to our students who have never left Jamaica or, for some, even the Parish of St. Mary?
As we look for ways to improve our sponsored children’s experiences, we still think our birthday celebrations went very well, thanks to our ACE staff mixing it up and using different music and activities. All ages were happy and grateful, including Ms. Foster who we think turned 14-years-old as well.
TRIP COST
There is an old proverb, “If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” History proves that lasting change in a poverty culture is achieved by empowering the people to reach their full potential and become self-sustaining. ACE is invested in our community long-term and in conjunction with our partners in the US, we are identifying the circumstances of those around us in order to find real solutions for their unique needs.
I love this idea. Experiences are special, unique and memorable. As you mentioned, the trinket gifts are nice for younger students, but this experiential idea could be impacting for older students.
Agreed-
Experiences over objects, particularly for
those 10 and above. These shared opportunities together are very impactful and add to building these important and influential relationships.
The idea of experiences for the older children sounds great! Our child is older and could benefit from and enjoy such times, which would become oh-so-special memories. I’m guessing an appropriate amount per child would be suggested, just as an amount for the party at Christmas has been suggested in the past?
When do you think this might be implemented? Our child’s birthday is coming up quickly in July. Thanks for thinking “outside the box!”
Thank you for your input regarding birthday experiences for our older students. We are in the process of planning our next birthday with the intention of taking our older students on a field trip. Once the trip is confirmed, Amber, our Stateside Sponsorship Coordinator, will contact sponsors wishing to contribute toward the cost of the trip.
Thank you again for your continued support of our sponsorship program. We appreciate your feedback as well as your generosity.