What’s CitCo Doing for Christmas?

Darrell Bradley

Believe it or not, Christmas di come! The year has certainly flown by, but the Belize City Council is looking forward to the holiday season, not just for goodies and giveaways – although there will be plenty of those – but also for opportunities for the Council itself to do charity throughout the Old Capital. Mayor Darrell Bradley could not resist the Santa Claus role in an expansive statement on Belize City’s own Christmas cheer.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

“Well, Christmas for me personally is my favorite time of the year because it is an opportunity to love on people. The City Council has taken a different approach this year. We are going to partner with Bowen and Bowen who always sponsors the tree lighting ceremony and that is going to mark the opening of the Christmas season in downtown; that’s always an activity that I look forward to. Of course we will support the Salvation Army in terms of their Kettle Drive and the City Council also has its own activity at B.T.L. Park where we have a concert. We give out gifts, we give out food and we have fireworks. I think that is the sixteen, the Saturday. But what happen this year is that we are doing a new initiative called the twelve days of charity so that between the first and the sixteenth of December there are twelve working days in there. We are doing a play off the Twelve Days of Christmas and what we are saying is that we want the City Council to do twelve acts of charity within the communities. So we’ve identified the giving of school bags and books to young people who are in need. We’re going to go to Sister Cecilia Home and we are going to feed and spend some fellowship time with members in that community. We are going to the children’s home; we are going to have our sanitation department clean out and paint five people’s homes within Belize City. Twelve of our departments including the office of the mayor, the councilors, even our spouses are getting involved in these activities. The idea really is that we are saying during the Christmas time and beyond we can be a blessing on others; you can be a person who gives to others, even if in a very small way. So we are saying that this twelve days of charity would ignite a wave and encourage people to have good values within our communities, to be brotherly and courteous and to give not only in the Christmas season, but throughout. And we are encouraging other organizations to do things throughout the Christmas season to show that you can be a blessing on others. So that this twelve days of charity is something that we are very proud of. We are saying that it is in line with things that we do which is the softer side of the City Council.”