On April 28th, Golden Gate Community Center, the GGCC Guild and other partners successfully organized an outstanding, first ever, Dia Del Niño (Children’s Day) event in which more than 500 community members attended and celebrated all children. Culturally, in the Latin American community, Easter or the Easter bunny is not typically recognized. Instead, a day is designated to celebrate all children and commemorate family. Golden Gate Community Center held a huge festival with enormous bouncy houses, a train, water dunking tank, zoo animals, stations with various activities such as face painting, bean bag toss, musical chairs, crafts etc and served more than 600 hot dogs. A group of clowns performed for the children along with a group of young girls who danced a middle eastern/Latin American dance.
The event received such a huge amount of support that the large majority was donated. Special thank you to the GGCC Guild, Sun Valley Church, Isaac Anti-drug Coalition, City of Phoenix Community Prosecutor, Bajo las Mismas lagrimas group and residents. Residents from all the Golden Gate programs came together to plan the event, and collect new toys that could be given out to every child that attended the event. This event was truly a collaborative event and it showed the true essence of community. Events such as these are the very few occasions that the community has to enjoy with their families because of barriers such as finances, transportation and documentation issues. Golden Gate is fortunate to be the safe haven where the community can come and enjoy a great day and know we are here for support.
“It was such a joy to see the many smiling faces of all the children that attended that the hot day and all the hard work was worth it all,” said Sarah Gonzalez, director. “I want to give kudos to the Community Revitalization Program, Amy Marmol & Livbier Pearson, for leading this event, the GGCC programs that participated and helped out and thanks to all those who supported this event. It would not have been a success without you!”
To learn more about Golden Gate Community Center, visit www.goldengatecenter.org.
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