On Easter, Catholics celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. However, this year we gave the 117 children at the La Carlota North Elementary School evacuation center extra reasons to rejoice. Families from surrounding areas trooped to this school to seek shelter during the December 2024 eruption of Mt. Kanlaon. The families continue to stay at the school since it is not yet safe to return home. They spent Christmas and rang in the New Year away from home. And now Easter gets added to the growing list of holidays spent in the evacuation center.
To bring some happiness to the evacuation center, we treated the children to an Easter Egg Hunt. Inside each egg was a number that corresponded to one of the fluffy stuffed toys displayed on stage. Each child happily walked home with a new friend to hug. Everyone enjoyed themselves they played games, spooned marshmallow-topped Mingo into their mouths or bounced around in the inflatable castle.
The team found out that it was the birthday of one of the children on site. John Mark turned six that day, so the team went out and got him a birthday cake with a candle on it. Happy birthday, John Mark and happy Easter to all the families present!
