The DLELC board had gathered and were meeting with the staff at the Lions early childcare center in Denver’s Rude Park. Christmas gifts were wrapped and in the hallway, one coat and wrapped gift for every child. Instead of giving the gifts out to the kids in class, the staff of Mile High Early Learning, who operate our Lions early learning center, suggested we give the parents options. I didn’t fully understand the reasoning until the first parent arrived.
One of the early learning staff greeted a parent coming to pick up his child. In Spanish, she conveyed to the father that the Lions had a wrapped gift and a winter coat for his child. He smiled meekly. Then she went on to give him the option to give these to his child today, or that he could take them and put them under the tree for his child. The father’s eyes teared up and a broad grin appeared.
The father took those gifts out to the car and put them in the trunk so his child would not see them, before returning to pick up the child and head home. The staff related to us that the parents had almost nothing, so the father was relieved and grateful that their child would now have presents to unwrap on Christmas morning. As you can imagine, tears filled the Lions members eyes as she relayed this to us.