Coalition On Temporary Shelters (COTS)!!!!!

This morning, Saturday, Dec 15th, I had the pleasure of taking part in a Christmas event at the beautiful Fisher Building in Detroit put on by the Coalition On Temporary Shelter! I just learned of the event on Friday and so I am very thankful to have been able to volunteer with this wonderful organization! The inside of this building has to be one of the most architecturally ornate and beatiful structures I have ever been in! The entire ceiling was hand-painted! Unbelieveable ~ it MUST have taken years! I wish I could have walked through the Fisher Theatre, but it was locked. Maybe sometime in the future I will do that!

I arrived at 8:30am to attend the volunteer meeting and get assignments as there were several different stations for the little children and their families to share in the joy and fun of the holiday season! There was a Karaoke station (and boy could everyone sing great!!), a face painting station, a Snowman craft table, a Christmas book storytelling station (with yummy cookies) and a visit with Santa! All of the stations began after a delicious breakfast with all the fixins'!!

I had so much fun greeting all the guests and mingling with as many as I could! Everyone was asked to bring $5 and an unwrapped toy! The toys were amazing and I couldn't believe, once again, how generous the people of Michigan were, to be sure that the children would have a wonderful Christmas experience! And with Michigan's economy right now I was actually humbled by what I saw and had to fight back the tears.

Some of the guests included: Santa Claus, Paws from the Detoirt Tigers baseball team, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Roary from the Detoirt Lions football team, and last, but not least, Maggie ~ American Coed's Miss Michigan Princess (she took 1st runner-up at the Nationals pageant and was actually a substitute at the last minute!!) She and her family are so nice!

Christmas is such a very special time of year and I hope that everyone who participated in the COTS Christmas event today felt blessed to be a part of it. I know I did!!! :) And it even snowed a little bit which added to the Christmas holiday spirit!