Panda + Community – September 2016

Okay so you might be saying are those Panda’s dancing? Yes, yes they are. This Dancing Panda video by hongmogu on youtube is awesome! So you might be asking why are the Panda’s dancing? Well, that is a really good question, I honestly didn’t think Panda’s could dance, but it turns out they can.

As part of our local hospital here in St Thomas, they are in the process of raising funds to expand and grow to meet all the needs of our local community. Wade and Lisa have been asked to dance with Ian and Jennifer in the open dance number at the Hospital’s Gala Night event.  So in addition to working an insane amount of hours the past 6 weeks, the dance floor has been busy trying to show a Panda with absolutely NO rhythm how to move his feet to music and actually not look like a bumbling idiot doing so.  (Not convinced it is working).

In addition we are busy gearing up for Christmas – yes I know – but literally it is just 2 months away. Considering how fast the months are going now that is about 6 blinks away. Oh wait, 5, I just blinked.  The Panda’s will be assisting Christmas Care this year, as Wade has joined the border of Christmas Care and will be working hard to sell Bears-4-Christmas-Care again this year.  This year The Smart Panda Corporation is going to try and bring back an old tradition that has been missing in the hampers for the past several years – Apples.  Yes Apples!  What Christmas isn’t complete without an apple in your stocking.  There appears to be all sorts of theories behind the giving of apples and/or oranges at Christmas, but for me it just reminds me of Christmas morning opening your stocking.  We are trying to get 5000 pounds of apples that will be packaged up and put in each of the 1500 hampers.

Speaking of Apples, Eat-2-Learn which is a program here in our community that helps ensure that kids from 38 different schools have food to eat so that they can learn at school.  The eat-2-learn program is incredible offering up breakfasts, lunches, and snacks to kids from kindergarten to teenage high-school students.  The best part of the program is it isn’t limited to one kid, it is for the entire school.  This inclusion helps make sure that all kids have the right food to learn. Our Rotary Club here has helped with the program at several schools and we were recognized at the Principal’s breakfast in September where each of the schools got their funding to ramp up the programs for the school year. My kids love the program and I know the kids that are actually hungry love it too.  There is some pretty amazing statistics around the program when it comes to the power of food in regards to learning – It really makes a difference.

Lastly, it may have been stupid warm here today, but soon enough the cold weather will be back upon us, and we are gearing up for another season working the kitchen at Inn-Out-Of-The-Cold serving up some hot delicious food to some of locals that need a little help during those cold months.

Until Next Month…… (I honestly can’t find any pictures —– next month we will have some!)