This year the Project Love Board at Boeing Corporation sadly had to elect to discontinue Project Love due to the economic crisis.The name will change to project Love II.
However, with the guidance of several of Boeing’s Projective Board members, Cerritos college members can continue to take care of the Little Singer Community School one more time.
“Project Love is the organization which provides children who can’t afford to buy their own gifts and really live a poor life,” Marla Burns, the person in charge of Project Love II, said.
For the past 19 years Cerritos College faculty, staff, students and community members have provided Christmas gifts for Native American children, who live on Navajo and Hope reservations in Arizona through Boeing Corporation’s Project Love.
Barbara Mueller, English instructor, said, “It is really fabulous work what Cerritos College is doing, and I feel really happy for getting involved and sending gifts to children.”
The Dineh or the “The people”, as the Navajo call themselves, migrated to the Southwest from the north around the 15th century.
The Navajo culture today encompasses over 20,000 people. The Navajo language was once used as U.S. Army code to disguise military transmission from the Japanese during World War II.
Project Love provides scholarships to students and also takes children to visit different places in Southern California.
Every donor who is ready to provide gifts to the children must fill out a form and choose the children whom they want to send gifts to.
They have to buy a gift, ranging from $10 to $20 or more and wrap it in a gift box with their name, address and name of the children they are giving the gift to.
“It is really good to help the needy ones, but right now, I can’t afford to help and have not thought of that,” Alexander Peralta, computer science major, said.
The gifts sent to the children are arranged according to the school, class and graduation date. The gifts are identified with a tag the donor has attached to the gift.
The children wait for their name to be announced to receive the gift they have been waiting for a year.
A visit from Santa Claus makes the event more exciting, when he delivers their gifts.
“We know we receive our gifts every month. Also we are super excited; Think of the children of the Hope Reservation who receives gifts once a year, they probably can’t wait to tear right in,” as stated in the Project Love catalog.
“It brings a tear to my eye to see children receiving their first football, basketball or special dolls that they really wanted, but never expected to receive. One who receives gifts every week won’t understand the meaning of the gift, but for the one whose each and every gift is the first one, always values the price of the gift,” Burns said.
Anyone interested in helping these children can contact Marla Burns at (562) 860-2451, x2808.
