I am almost certain that everyone knows about the nuclear disaster that happened in the spring of 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
But just for a quick insight, in the early hours of 26 April 1986, one of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl power station exploded. Even now, contamination is still a problem as a result of the world’s worst nuclear accident.
A charity called Chernobyl Children’s Project (UK) has been set up to bring around 400 children to Britain for a recuperative holiday. Doctors say that just by leaving their homeland for a few weeks boosts the children’s immune systems for at least two years, helping them to resist, or recover from, serious illness.
So, on 30th July 2008 the Mitchell Group invited a group of children to the dealership.
A few weeks before their arrival everyone started to bring gifts and clothes in for them. The amount of items started to stack up and even on the day of arrival people were still bringing things in. It took a while to sort through the bags as it was all made presentable.
When the group of 17 children arrived with their helpers they seemed so excited as they made their way up the canteen where we had laid on lots of food for them. After they had finished lunch we took them on a tour of the three dealerships and let them look round and sit in the cars here. You could see them pointing and nudging each other as they looked round the vehicles. They were amazed by every single one. We then made our way back to the canteen where we let the children rampage through all the gifts and clothes. The look on the children’s faces was un-describable. They were finding clothes for each other and trying then on. Their bags soon filled up.
I got talking to one of the interpreters and they said that one little boy had no clothes at all back home. So I scrambled through the crowd and picked out as much as I could and made a bag for him myself while he sat timidly at the table not wanting to get in the way of everyone else getting stuff.
As they were about to leave, the children sang a little song saying thank you and handed me a little gift back which was a Russian doll. This was heart breaking. They were so grateful for the things they had.
We led them to the mini buses where they were next going to the cinema and they all waved goodbye as they drove off.
This was a remarkable day and very memorable. I don’t think I will ever forget the look of excitement on the children’s faces. A big thank you goes to everyone for all their contributions and help. The day wouldn’t have gone as well without it.
I look forward to the next time they visit us.
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