Minister of Works Rohan Sinanan did not don his Santa suit this year, but he was in the festive spirit with his Santa hat as he boarded a fire truck with Santa Claus and distributed toys to children around the city before heading to the ministry’s car park, at the corner of Sackville and Richmond Streets, Port-of-Spain to continue with the ministry’s fourth annual Children’s Christmas party, yesterday.
The children were treated to bouncy castles, inflatables, slides, climbing towers, face painting, fire truck “rides” and other fun activities, toys and food. Spider-Man and a Star Wars Imperial Stormtrooper were also on hand to entertain the children.
Bajan soca superstar Alison Hinds was a special guest for the event.
Speaking to reporters during the festivities Sinanan said, “We catered for 500-600 children. From the fire station, we went to Independence Square, gave out presents to kids we saw and invited them to come across to the party.
“We asked some of our staff members to bring their kids, invited some of the less fortunate kids and underprivileged children at children’s homes like Princess Elizabeth and Margaret Kristow’s.
“We prepared everything for them, transporting them home after the function finishes at 5 pm and the children look forward to it.
“It’s something we look forward to, it’s a collective effort by the ministry’s staff, headed by the communications department.”
He said rather than have Christmas parties for the adults, we decided for the last four years to treat the children instead.
Sinanan said the ministry did not have a Christmas party per se, it put all its effort into the kids’ party.
He said despite whatever challenges the people may think they face as a country, there were many more countries a lot worse off than T&T.
Sinanan said the nation was still a blessed country and people should not just talk about the negatives and should really look at the positives that they had and try to help as many people as they can.
He wished everyone in T&T a bright and prosperous new year and Merry Christmas and he and the ministry’s staff looked forward to actually taking T&T from one level to the next in 2010 .