St. Martin De Porres Youth Group Gives to 100
The St. Martin De Porres youth group was in a generous mood today. It hosted a Christmas party this afternoon for over one hundred children from that community. Youth Group leader, Debbie Ordonez told News Five that they hold numerous fundraisers throughout the year and putting smiles on the faces of less fortunate children is one of the ways they’re giving back to the community.
Debbie Ordonez, Leader, St. Martin De Porres Youth Group
“We’re having a Christmas party for the less fortunate children of St. Martins De Porres area; the youth group actually of St. Martin DE Porres is having this party.”
Delahnie Bain
“What made you decide to embark on this initiative?”
Debbie Ordonez
Debbie Ordonez
“Actually the youth group is a very active youth group and this is one of the initiatives that they wanted to undertake. It was a conscious decision between the entire membership, which is about twenty-five of us right now. As I mentioned, I am the leader of the youth group and I am responsible for them and they just decided that this is one of the things they wanted to give back to the less fortunate of this area, especially the children; put a smile on their faces. Some of them won’t even have a good Christmas so we wanted to make sure they have a toy at least.”
Delahnie Bain
“What are some of the activities and the treats that you have for them today?”
Debbie Ordonez
“Well, of course we gave them the main course, a meal of rice and beans, salad, chicken. We have apples, we have ice cream and Santa will be here at five to give them their gifts.”
Delahnie Bain
“As a youth group, how do you finance something like this?”
Debbie Ordonez
“We do a lot of fundraisers during the course of the year. We do bake sales after mass, which generates some funds for us, we do barbeque sales; we do numerous fundraisers and generate funds by that and some of that is used for initiatives like this along with donations from other people from the church and other business people.”
Ordonez says, they hope to make the community Christmas party an annual event.
