For over 10 years, the Most Reverend Bishop Jean Marie, Founder and Superior General of Fraternite Notre Dame, has been organizing a Christmas Party for all the children in East Harlem.

He wants to sow the Joy of Christmas among the poor and the little. This is so dear to his heart, that he comes in person to preside the distribution. This year, his health did not allow him to join us and we missed him a lot.

The Most Reverend Bishop Marie Bernard and the religious Nuns, Friars and Priests from our New York Mission represented him there.
Months before, Fraternite Notre Dame's Nuns had started collecting toys towards the Christmas Party, and this year, they were rather worried because several agencies that usually helped them were unable to participate: "will we get enough presents?"

Divine Providence however, was quite generous, and after a lot of phone calls, many persons of good will offered their support, including the Rotary Club of New York (# 6), the Lycée Français and several High Schools of Manhattan, NY and also Connecticut.

Other persons provided bagged candies and drinks. The first years, we would receive 200 children at our Christmas Party; this year, we expected over 2,000. For several weeks, the nuns and several volunteers, including our friends from Rotaract, spent hours wrapping the gifts and sorting them out by age group to facilitate distribution.

Wednesday, December 17: the D-day has arrived. Our big truck is not even large enough to contain the enormous quantity of presents, drinks and candies.

Upon arrival at noon at the place of the party, the rain stops, which allows us to conveniently unload. Little by little, our volunteer friends arrive: as early as 11 a.m., our friend from Connecticut arrived with her daughter and another friend.

At 12:30 p.m., our volunteer friends arrive to lend a strong hand in the unloading process. Then the Rotary Club of New York [# 6] arrives in numbers, including its President: over 15 persons!
Our faithful friends, the usual volunteers of the Soup Kitchen are there also along with many friends, including some from the New York French Office du Tourisme.

The personnel of our host, a Junior High School, and their after school program, El Faro Beacon, are also very helpful and everything is ready by 3 o'clock. In the street outside, a long waiting line already stretches all the way to the avenue.

We first open the doors to the 250 children from the school that welcomes us, and then to all those from the neighborhood. They first go through the food line to get a great snack; on nice Christmas tunes, the religious and volunteers offer them some fruits, cake, sweets and drinks.

Then, they are directed towards the large room where a Rotarian, as Santa Claus, is waiting for them before a mountain of gifts.
Some are a bit impressed to get so close to him, they are all delighted.

Those interested can stop by at the booth where their faces will be painted; from there they will leave with a butterfly on their cheek or a star on their forehead, quite happy, holding their presents with a merry heart.

For many of them, this will be their only Christmas gift, because their family is very poor. Glory be to God, and Peace on earth to men of good will: may God bless all those who helped us, directly or indirectly, to make this afternoon celebration possible.

We are unable to cite names here, for fear of forgetting some. We are certain that they all felt this secret joy that is found in giving, more than in receiving.

Thanks to them that night, 2,500 children fell asleep and had good dreams, knowing that they are loved by God and men.