Palentine’s Day—the global holiday celebrating friendship—showed every one of our students in preschool through high school that they’ll always find a warm and welcoming place at KidWorks.
Timed around Valentine’s Day, KidWorks’ version of Palentine’s Day reinforced Jesus’ eternal love for them, along with emphasizing the value of social relationships, emotional well-being and just plain having fun with your pals.
Preschool Celebration: Palentine’s Day was celebrated on Feb. 14 by 39 students enrolled in our state-licensed preschool.
“The preschoolers enjoyed snacks, a sing-along and exchanged cards with their friends,” says Idalia Galdamez, our Preschool Director. “They decorated take-home bags with patterns and their names.”
Idalia offered a big “thank you” to the parents for all their help planning and supporting the event.
“Members of the Parent Advisory Council led the gathering,” Idalia says. “They also purchased the supplies, including food, apple juice drinks and goodie bags. Plus they prepped and decorated the preschool and cleaned up at the end of the day. They worked really hard to make of this day a memorable one for our youngest scholars.”
Adds Idalia, “The preschool team is also grateful for all the wonderful, donated gifts received by the children and their parents. These made everyone feel special!”
Junior & High School Celebration: KidWorks welcomed 54 teens to our Palentine’s Day celebration, held the evening of Feb. 17. Students enrolled in KidWorks programs were encouraged to bring a friend to the event.
“We partnered with students from the Klesis Christian Fellowship organization at the University of California, Irvine,” says Cynthia Gomez, KidWorks’ Youth Lead.
“Their focus is to show students who Jesus is,” Cynthia says. “For this event, they wanted to show that His love is perfect and to discourage youth from chasing romantic love at such a young age.”
Cynthia adds, “Klesis planned the entire event, from flyers, games and a special message, to dinner and setup; they did it all.”
Cynthia thanked these Klesis members: Leads Michelle and Brian Wang; Roger and Stephanie Ding and Joyce and Brian Ikkanda.
Klesis has partnered with KidWorks in other meaningful and impactful ways.
“They’ve led Bible studies called ‘Life Chats’ every Thursday at our Donahue Center,” Cynthia says. “The organization has been increasing their students’ involvement with us by planning Palentine’s Day and other wonderful events for us.
“What made Palentine’s Day such a success was the intentionality behind the UCI team’s planning and leading the event, as well as the support from KidWorks’ staff,” Cynthia says.
She adds, “Everyone had the opportunity to engage in a fun and meaningful way that shows the students we genuinely care about their wellbeing. Importantly, we were able to share a special message about God’s love for the students.”
Cynthia says Palentine’s Day is just one example of how KidWorks will increase our engagement with our youth in 2023.
“We are excited to have added more youth nights to the calendar year,” she says. “These events will be put together for more specific grade levels in middle school and high school so that they’re more tailored to their interests, providing more fun and being even more engaging.”
We’ll cover these and other events in future stories from KidWorks.
By Glenn Leibowitz, volunteer writer