“It adds sparkle to their lives”: the Christmas spirit blows in Montpellier for 791 children

Première table : choisir son livre. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Choosing your stuffed animal, not easy. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Cloé, Kim, Charlie and Candice: mother and daughters over the moon with all these gifts. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

With its 90 volunteers, the Espace Renaissance association brought the Christmas spirit to the Place de la Comédie. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

The distribution of gifts would not have been complete without the presence of Santa Claus, of course. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Le maire de Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, tout à sa joie d’avoir rencontré le Père Noël. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

For its 13th edition, the Renaissance association organized a distribution of gifts to 791 little Montpellier residents on the forecourt of the Opéra-Comédie.

“She has been excited for a week thinking about this distribution of gifts. She already knows what she wants, football stuff as she says. She is a real tomboy. Besides, she plays football, and she loves it“, confides Kim, mother of Candice, 4 years old. Her two other daughters, Cloé, 7 years old, and Charlie, 10 months old, will also be among the 791 children who will receive gifts thanks to the Espace Renaissance association. Monday, December 23, is finally the big day, and impatience is at its peak.

While all the children are at the cinema, the 90 volunteers brought together by the association are busy emptying the boxes filled with toys, books, stuffed animals, balls and sports jerseys, which they distribute on tables set up for the occasion under a tent, which quickly resembles an Ali Baba's cave. Everything stops at 11 a.m. for a minute of silence as part of this national day of mourning in tribute to the victims of Cyclone Chido, which devastated Mayotte Island. “Now, we will think about our children and Christmas, after this minute of silence“, says Joël Fernandez, president of Espace Renaissance.

Christmas before Christmas

While some volunteers finish preparing the walking route that the children will follow to reach the tables covered with gifts, others form a guard of honour on the Place de la Comédie to welcome and applaud the little ones, still at the cinema. Emma, ​​a medical student, is impatient. This is the first time she has participated as a volunteer in this operation. “I am here for the children. Seeing them with a smile on their face is really nice“, she comments.

Wish granted: the children come out of the cinema, already smiling. Some run, others jump for joy, some fall down laughing. There are some arm in arm and others who advance alone, brave. But as soon as they are near the tables covered with gifts, they all look the same, wide-eyed and focused on what they are going to choose. The operation, already carried out this year in Béziers, Sète, Lodève, Nîmes, Lunel, Marseille too, and Montpellier, this December 23, will have benefited this year, in total, 5,000 children.

An operation with heart

“The first time we did this Christmas operation, 300 children benefited. Gradually, their number increased to reach 6,000, and 5,000 this year. We work with all the working-class neighborhoods of the cities in which we operate, but also with sports clubs, the CCAS and associations such as the Restos du cœur“, explains Joël Fernandez.

The association, whose primary objective is to “give a little happiness to underprivileged children“, also works with abused, sick or disabled children. As part of this Christmas operation in Montpellier, the children received as gifts a movie session, a stuffed animal, a book and a toy of their choice, as well as a snack. All the toys are new and of a wide variety.

An operation possible thanks to the collections made by the association and the support of many companies. “It puts sparkle in the lives of children“, sums up Kim. As in that of the parents.