Teaching Thanksgiving

It’s difficult to teach a homeless child about Thanksgiving.

When you ask a child who has nothing what he’s thankful for, oftentimes you get a blank stare.  Many of them are totally unfamiliar with the concept of big family dinners, full of love and plenty of turkey and pumpkin pie.

Going to Grandma’s house? Some families have no contact with extended family, while others see grandma’s house as a place to sleep on the floor for a few nights in-between other transitional living arrangments.  It’s just more chaos in already tumultuous lives.

But at Positive Tomorrows, we do work on teaching our students about this very important holiday.  We talk about the history–about Pilgrims and Indians and when the holiday began.  We talk about the concept of working together for survival and how difficult it can be to get along all by yourself.

Thanks to the assistance of Executive Women International (EWI), we have our own family dinner, complete with turkey and stuffing.  Family members are invited and we all celebrate the holiday as the big Positive Tomorrows family.

We help children who have few material possessions to think about what they can be thankful for.  They have parents who love them and who are trying their best to survive.  They have a place to go to school where people will go the extra mile to teach them and advocate for them.  They’re thankful for their mentors who come in every week to work with them and build a strong relationship.

We’re thankful at Positive Tomorrow, too, for all of our friends—especially the donors who provide the funding and the volunteers who spend their time on our behalf.  Thank you so much for your assistance in our important mission.