It’s always exciting when a box full of donations in kind rolls in for our children. It’s almost like Christmas when we peel the box open to reveal the gifts inside. What’s even better is many times the donations contain something completely new to our children. We love sharing the different games, activities and experiences, from story books and educational games to puzzles and science experiments which all help to stretch their minds and bodies.
Over the past few years, donors such as Aarti Vakil, Step Up Foundation, Wishing Well and other individuals have sent many amazing resources for our boys and girls. Among some of our recent donations have been inline skates, skateboards and waveboards. We saved these and other donations received in November and December for distribution in the sacks of dorm gifts Santa Clause delivers on Christmas Day. We were a little concerned that our children wouldn’t know what to do with them or would fall over, especially with the waveboards. Cue our Symbiosis volunteers who were here over the festive season and were able to share rudimentary instructions. Within minutes, our skilled kids were confidently whizzing up and down as if they had been doing it for years.
There is now a small, dedicated crew who spend every spare minute on their wheels. With only a few skates and boards to go around they patiently await their turn but once they’ve got their skates on there’s no stopping them.
Recently Team AIM Skating Academy in Ahmednagar hosted a skating competition and once we heard about it, we immediately signed up our skating fanatics. As well as having a great day out among their fellow skaters they also rolled to victory with Yash bringing home double gold medals in the Under 14 and Alok taking the gold in the under 16s category.
This is just one example of how small contributions can build confidence and make a big difference. We would love to be able to give them more skates and boards, if your children have any they have outgrown we would love to give them a new home. Equally, we would also welcome any other toys and games that our children will engage with, and who knows you may also spark a new passion.