Jade Monfils at the Christmas Angel Project 2008

Christmas is more a time of giving than receiving, and I spent the holiday with the Dallas Soup Mobile. Which is an organization that I have previously worked with. All throughout the year the "Soup Man" David Timothy, takes the Soup Mobile van around the streets of Dallas and feeds the homeless. December 24th and 25th was the Soup Mobile's Christmas Angel Project, which took 450 homeless off the streets, and put them up at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. Where each person got their own room to rest in and shower. They were feed 3 meals in the banquet room, and were given new clothes (all donations from companies). My role at the event was during Christmas dinner, I greeted the guests as they arrived and introduced the Chairman of the Christmas Angel Project. A lot of people usually just disregard the homeless, but they are people who are just down on their luck for the moment. They are working to get back on their feet, and the holidays are a supposed to be a time of celebration and not despair. I saw many familiar faces from the Dallas Day Out event at City Hall back in October. Many of the homeless actually remembered me from that event, I joked with some of them when the others were saying "How does she know you?" that "Oh yea, we go way back". Being at this event for me was the true spirit of the holidays, and I am so glad that I got to meet everyone. Here is another clip of the days events online:

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/local_state/index.html?nvid=316198&shu=1

Jade Monfils at the Garland Asian Festival

I love cultural events, you get to learn about other countries and customs. Being mixed with Filipino, Chinese, French, and Indonesian. I have spent time getting to know all the unique cultures that make me who I am today. I was able to emcee the Garland Asian Festival that was held at the Saigon Mall. There were performances from the cultures of China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Philippines, Hawaii, Thailand, and Cambodia, just to name a few. It was a colorful day with many talented people that taught others about each individual culture and what makes each different. There were different booths set up for the children that had fun things like face painting, and other food booths that had snacks from many different countries. Several different awards were presented to many community leaders that have helped the Asian community here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I was even honored to get an award myself!

Jade Monfils emcees at the Philippine Physician Fundraiser

I haven't been able to update my blog for a little while, but I recently emceed a fundraiser that was very important to me. I had the chance to go to the Philippines last Christmas, and it was the 1st time that I had visited. A lot of time when people vacation, they spend most of their time at resort areas and don't go out to see how the people of the area actually live. I spent my Christmas last year in the provinces, all the people were so welcoming and sweet. But at the same time these people don't have a lot and being there made me feel so blessed about my life here in the US. Also in the city when I visited Manila, there are children that don't even have homes. I could go on and on about this...... I decided there that one of my goals was to do something to be able to help people overseas. It is not like here in the US, where everyone has an opportunity to change what happens to them in the future, most people who live in poverty have no choice and no opportunity. Even though I am here, I was able to help raise money at a fundraiser, whose profits all go to the Philippines. These funds help to provide medical assistance to people who otherwise could not afford medical care. It was a casino night and chips were purchased, at the end of the night all players were able to purchase prizes that were donated. It was a fun night as well, and even more rewarding that all proceed went to such a worthy cause!!