Super Powers

Every year I get the grand opportunity to join the ladies of Girl Power and help them shop for "Christmas Angels."  I look forward to this every year.  Girl Power is a club at our school for fifth and sixth grade girls, and it primarily focuses on community service.  These girls work hard every year to better the community they live in...and trust me when I say this...it isn't easy making the community around our school better. These girls are coming from a tough place, and it is just pretty cool that they are willing to spend their Saturday shopping for kids that are less fortunate (or in some cases-as unfortunate) as themselves.

Sooo there we are every December ready to shop.  It isn't always easy keeping track of 4-5 girls in a mall, especially being a distracted shopper myself.  But somehow we always manage pick out our angels we are going to shop for, get the gifts, and get to Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate before the time is up...I sometimes feel like I am in an episode of Supermarket Sweep, but with toys and clothes instead of food flying about in the aisles.

This year I only had three girls.  They decided to pick two kids to shop for, that way they could spend more on each kid.  We were at Metro Center, which apparently has decided that toys are not as important to have in their mall as K-Momo, K-Momo clone 1, K-Momo clone 2, and so on.  We were on a mission to find a baby doll, tea set, arts and crafts, a board game, and clothes.  Let's just say, in between the latest in club wear, we were able to find these items.  Mission Accomplished.  On our way to drop off all the gifts, we passed by a delightful little accessories shop, Tinkerbell.  The girls all squealed like, well, little girls and asked if we could go in. I said sure and figured it would be a good time to try and count out how much we had spent on each kid so I could report it later.  As I sat in Tinkerbell and was counting, I could hear the girls oohing and ahhing over all the flashy accessories.  One of the girls, Yessenia, and brought $5.00 (probably her only $5.00) with her and said she was going to buy some things.  I saw what she was buying, told her to go for it, and smiled thinking about how awesome/funny she was going to look in the huge bright orange flowered headband she was buying.

The girls and I turned in our gifts and headed to my car to get our tired shopping butts to the one and only Peter Piper Pizza.  Once we were in and they had their tokens I gave them all a big hug and said I had to go.  Then, the girls all giggled and told me to wait.  They held out their shiny pink Tinkerbell bag and said, "Miss Mathis, we got these for you." I was shocked!  I smiled and told them that they didn't need to do that, and that they should keep it, but I loved that they thought of me. 

The girls insisted that it was for me, and they liked spending time with me that day, and they were thankful I had bought them some treats along the way. All I had gotten them was some lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick (only the best for my girls!) and some chocolates from a store.

I practically skipped out of the PPP.  How amazing is it that these girls, who don't come from much themselves, are sweet enough to spend all day shopping for others, and then they spend the only money that they had brought themselves on me? I am totally undeserving of it, and completely humbled.

My positively (yeah- you can expect a lot of play on that word!) fabulous new jewelery!