day of the child

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 14th annual Day of the Child. This event is so cool -- they bus in thousands of foster children from all over LA and put on this huge, free carnival full of rides, games, music and other fun stuff that kids love :) As a mentor, I was paired up with one of the little girls and my job was just to take her around and make sure she had an amazing day :)

They had more mentors than children (a good problem to have!) so I paired up with my friend Venina and we were assigned a little girl named Vanessa. When we first met her she was SO shy and kept saying she wanted to go home. We took her on some rides and she quickly warmed up which was great!

Over the course of the day we rode most of the rides, ate tons of carnival food, played a bunch of games, Vanessa got a makeover, and we took a tour of the Star Eco Lab.

At the end of the day, my mentee was up on the stage dancing with a bunch of other kids which was great to see since she was SO shy earlier.

If I wasn't leaving for Orlando in January, I would sign up to become a long-term mentor for one of these children. It was an amazing experience that really opened my eyes.

xoxo,

Natasha