{"id":235947,"date":"2012-12-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/the-joy-of-kids-helping-kids\/"},"modified":"2012-12-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T08:00:00","slug":"the-joy-of-kids-helping-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/the-joy-of-kids-helping-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of kids helping kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teaching the true meaning of giving<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once said, \u201cIt takes a village\u201d when referring to the raising of children and for the fifth year in a row, a popular Downtown hotel is putting that very discipline into action.<\/p>\n

Since 2007, the Manchester Grand Hyatt and its Gingerbread Village Project have provided funding to local charities that make a difference in children\u2019s lives and they draw participation from area children in order to do so.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Last year’s Gingerbread Village on display in the Grand Lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt. (Photo by Rodney Regala, Regala Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through this annual project the hotel not only raises money to support the local chapter of the Make A Wish Foundation, but also teaches nearly 200 local area children what it is like to give instead of get during the holiday season. Those children also get an up-close look at a major hotel operation and its culinary career choices.<\/p>\n

On November 15 & 16, third and fourth graders from three Downtown community schools \u2013 Monarch School, Perkins Elementary and Kimbrough Elementary\u00a0 \u2013 gathered in four-person teams at the hotel, designing and building their gingerbread houses with the help of hotel culinary staff.<\/p>\n

This Friday, Nov. 30, the children\u2019s work will be positioned in the Grand Lobby of the hotel to create a \u201cmagical gingerbread village.\u201d Its centerpiece will be a six-foot-high, 1\/50th scale gingerbread replica of the 497-foot tall Manchester Grand Hyatt and its grounds, complete with parking garage and pool, created earlier this week by Executive Chef Brent Martin.<\/p>\n

With a total of 65 gingerbread houses, a six-foot tall hotel replica and 65 gingerbread persons completed for the project, the Hyatt said 200 pounds of gingerbread mix, 20 gallons of Royal icing and 550 pounds of holiday candies are used during the process.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Kids from Downtown schools working on their gingerbread house at last year’s event. (Photo by Rodney Regala, Regala Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe annual Gingerbread Village is by far our most highly anticipated interactive event of the season,\u201d said Kelly Commerford, director of marketing at the waterfront hotel. \u201cWe are thrilled to continue our ongoing partnership with the Make a Wish Foundation and are blessed to have the opportunity to connect San Diego\u2019s youth with such an inspiring organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to its website, the local chapter of the Make A Wish Foundation \u201cgrants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year the Manchester Grand Hyatt hosted 175 Make A Wish families who travelled to San Diego as a result. This funding helps allow them to visit the Zoo, the USS Midway Museum and Balboa Park while they are here.<\/p>\n

The gingerbread village will be on display through Dec. 31, however, local residents are encouraged to come to the Manchester Grand Hyatt between now and Dec 14 to view the student\u2019s work and cast their vote.\u00a0 The hotel is also an official drop-off point for the Toys for Tots program, so visitors are also encouraged to bring an new, unwrapped toy for a boy or a girl.<\/p>\n

That same evening, the Hyatt will host all the families involved with a full buffet-style dinner, sing Christmas Carols, make ornaments and announce the top three winners of the gingerbread contest. The winning gingerbread house team will then present Make A Wish with a $2000 check to support the children with life-threatening illnesses that they service.<\/p>\n

Commerford said this was but one of the many projects of the Hyatt Thrive global initiatives the local hotel conducts throughout the year that center on community engagement. \u201cThe kids just have a ball,\u201d Commerford said. \u201cWhat\u2019s really cool is [they] really get it.\u201d He described a team-leader who last week pleasantly surprised him during the gingerbread house presentation phase. He said she reminded him why the project exists. He said that moment came when \u201cSylvia,\u201d who had an older brother and sister that had also gone through the same program in previous years, shared with him the name of her team\u2019s gingerbread house. It was called \u201cHouse of Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said \u2018we just hope all these sick kids at Make A Wish get well\u2019,\u201d Commerford said. \u201cThis is why we do it, it\u2019s not about the publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Manchester Grand Hyatt is located at One Market Place at Harbor Drive, next to Seaport Village and near the Convention Center. For more information, call 619-232-1234 or visit Manchester.grandhyatt.com.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching the true meaning of giving Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once said, \u201cIt takes a village\u201d when referring to the raising of children and for the fifth year in a row, a popular Downtown hotel is putting that very discipline into action. Since 2007, the Manchester Grand Hyatt […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"The Joy of kids helping kids","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}