And another humanitarian who is giving back to the kids this Christmas season is G Michael Reid. You may remember him as the person who re-did and renamed the Charlie Burton Park on Gibnut Street. Well, yesterday, he helped to organize a Secret Santa program in the park for the kids in the neighbourhood. The initiative was successful, and Courtney Menzies spoke with Reid to find out more.
Reid's other partners in this initiative were Francis Woods from Cisco Construction - who helped to procure additional gifts - and Mirab Department Store.
Christmas is only a week away, and some kids are already feeling the Christmas spirit with a Secret Santa Program organized by G Michael Reid and, of course, Santa Claus himself.
According to Reid, he tries to do a similar program every year, but was unsure since, in 2020, everything is unpredictable. That is, until Santa, in the form of an anonymous Good Samaritan, approached him to bring some Christmas cheer.
G Michael Reid - Organizer, Secret Santa Program "We were aware that this year would be challenge but we still wanted to do something for the children because I keep telling myself I'm doing alright as an adult but how would I do as a child with all that energy and locked up and nothing to look forward to and we figured we had to do something. I was approached by this gentleman, he calls himself Secret Santa, and doesn't want to be known in any other way. He's a humble fellow and he said, well I'd like to help because I follow your program, I see what you do with these kids, and we decided, let's do a Christmas giveaway, some gifts."
The kids that the program targeted are those who come from deserving homes, since these are the children that need it the most.
G Michael Reid "They choose us, they come around and the park is frequented, again they're lots of children in the neighbourhood, and many of them are not what you call middle or upper class at all. They're children that come from troubled homes and they have backgrounds that are troubling, and we try to talk to them, speak to them, but a lot of them just come into the park and we try to get their names and keep track of them and see how we can help them in any way."
At first, Reid was unsure of how to maintain COVID-19 regulations.
But just like this little girl, who at first was not keen on wearing a mask, everyone was able to follow the protocols in place.
G Michael Reid "We knew that we had to stick within protocol, we liaise with the police department, they were kind enough, Mr Serrano at precinct one was very very helpful and they sent out three police officers and they were here with us the length of the entire program and what we did was we had a back gate there that we let the kids entire one at a time, they were well sterilized and they had sanitizer, mask was a requirement, and they just pass and Santa was just standing in there and he was in there just giving out the gifts, they got the gifts, went through the front gate and went home. So it was a plan that worked well."
Reid said he was motivated by the needy kids, knowing that they deserved gifts just as much as anyone else.
G Michael Reid "I think that's the main thing that drove me to it, because I remember growing up I used to get one gift every year and I used to look forward to it. Many of these kids would not get a gift unless a program like this is implemented. So that was a big driving force behind it, I'm happy to know that we - as Mark Philips said, if we put a smile on one child's face, it was worth all the effort we put into it."
A band consisting of musicians Brad Patico, Mark Philips, and Michael Usher, also donated their time to entertain the children.
According to Reid, more gifts are on their way from the US for more deserving children.
