On Sunday 2 December, families from the Counties Manukau region celebrated the festive season at the SKYCITY Convention Centre. A day filled with gifts, Santa, activities, and delicious food was what helped contribute to a successful celebration.
Middlemore Foundation in collaboration with SKYCITY, hosted a Christmas party for children under the care of Kidz First Community Health, which ran for 2 hours with a variety of activities for less-abled children. This gave the children an opportunity to celebrate the merry season with their favourite book characters, including Clifford The Big Red Dog and Geronimo Stilton, before endeavouring into some Kit Kat and Milky Way chocolate bars donated by Nestle.
Middlemore Foundation CEO Sandra Geange was amazed by the entertainment and decorations “It really gave it the Christmas spirit. Thank you to all the volunteers who donated their time to help bring joy to these children and their whānau at this time of the year”.
One of the many memorable moments was our generous volunteers interacting with the children through a range of activities such as creating DIY Christmas cards and face painting. There was no shortage of entertainment on the day, musicians, dancers and giving everyone an opportunity to win a board game as a spot prize, which was a highlight for many of the children.
To extend the children's excitement, as they walked through the door they were greeted by Christmas carols and every guest was treated to a goodie bag. The goodie bag was a reusable backpack containing balloons, stickers, a wooden toy clown and magazines for each child to take home with them in remembrance of their special day.
This day would not have happened without the amazing sponsors who supported the event. Thank you to Just Party Supplies, Creative Classrooms and Gordon and Gotch for supplying the treats in the goodie bags, it did not fail to impress.
As each child visited Santa they received a present whether it be a teddy bear, books or a board game. A special thank you to Whitcoulls Botany and Royal Oak , Scholastic, McLeods Books, The Women’s Bookshop and Seriously Board for the donating the incredible gifts.
The generosity from the community constantly amazes us and contributed towards everyone sharing an interactive day with their favourite characters, music and whānau. We can not wait to celebrate again next year!