Single parents' event

Last night the second single parents' event at Dios es Amor took place.  Abraham and I organized the event, but a small army of volunteers helped make it a success. One teacher at Puebla Christian School sent out an email asking for donated items so that she could set up a very low-priced garage sale for the parents with proceeds benefiting a single mom who recently suffered a heart attack.  The PCS director and his wife attended the event to help in many different ways, including driving Abraham and I and three guests from Huejotzingo back home after the event.  The PCS administrator and his wife also attended, helping by playing the piano during the dinner and with set-up, the garage sale, and clean-up afterwards.  Some PCS parents donated money to offset the cost of food for the dinner, and another PCS family provided their chocolate fountain and bought the chocolate.  A group of seminary students and a PCS mom donated their time to give massages, manicures, facials, and light make-overs.  A PCS dad drove Abraham and I to the enormous Central de Abastos to buy most of the ingredients for the dinner and then drove us to the church to leave the food.  Another PCS teacher let us stay the night at her apartment in Puebla so that we could go to the market early on Tuesday.  The elementary students made tissue paper flowers and made vases out of bottles for the decorations at the event.

And then there was the team from the church.  One mother gave her time to take care of the kids brought by single parents.  Many junior high and high school youth group members arrived early Thursday afternoon to begin cleaning and chopping vegetables and fruits for the soup, salad, punch, and chocolate fountain.  They steadily chopped through mountains of onions, carrots, potatoes, apples, and more and then cleaned up to have room to prepare stuffed and breaded chicken breasts assembly-line style.  By the time the food was ready, the parents were seated at the table, ready to eat their dinner.  Now the youth group took up trays and served the tables.

In total, seventeen single parents attended.  When they arrived, Abraham lead some games while the kitchen crew continued to prepare dinner.  About an hour later, the PCS and seminary group arrived and set up the garage sale and beauty parlor.  Soon the parents were enjoying treatments, and then it was time for dinner.  As the parents finished dinner and began their dessert from the chocolate fountain, we held a small raffle, and then the evening had ended for the parents.

There was still plenty of clean-up to do, and again the crew pitched in.  By a little after ten, the last dish was washed and put away, and we left for home.  The team of helpers was larger than the group of parents that were at the event, but everyone stayed busy except for when they took time out to eat.

Until the next single parents' event...