The preschool children from Central West Family Day Care in Parkes are pictured with their Christmas Giving Tree.
This year the Christmas tree at Central West Family Day Care (CWFD) was turned into a Giving Tree, with aim of teaching the children that Christmas time is not just about receiving gifts but also about giving to those who may be in need.
Each child from the center was asked to bring in a wrapped gift to place under the Giving Tree.
“The tree was set up before the recent flooding events, but when the children heard about all of the children in Eugowra who lost all of their toys, they decided themselves to donate their gifts to those children,” said Ann-Marie Winter who is Manager/Co-Ordinator of the Central West Family Day Care facility in Parkes.
The CWFD educators reached out to their connections in Eugowra to identify and contact a family that had been affected by the flooding to be the beneficiary of their giving tree.
The Fenton family lost everything when flood waters rose up to a meter and a half at their Eugowra property. Their house and all of their belongings were destroyed, and they are now tasked with having to rebuild their lives, literally from the ground up.
Laura Fenton went on to recount the terrifying moments when they had to flee for their lives.
“Isabella was asleep and Harry was outside playing. Our neighbour wandered over to just say hi and check on us because at that stage we had already had water coming up to our driveway, but that was before all the water came from the hills,” said Laura.
“It was lucky she came over when she did because we were just standing there chatting when we saw the water coming at us. We had about six minutes from when we first saw it coming, to when it his us.”
“I ran in and got Isabella out of bed, got Harry in the car and let the dogs out. By the time I drove up to the higher part of our property that didn’t flood, I was driving through water,” said Laura.
Eugowra was already experiencing flooding prior to the big surge and Kyle Fenton, who is a Helicopter Rescue Pilot, had been trying for hours to get home to his family but was unable to due to the bridge thatwas impassable at Cudal.
Laura remembered facetiming her husband Kyle and frantically saying “You need to pray for us, because we are about to die.”
The Fenton family were overwhelmed by the gesture of kindness from the children at CWFC and Laura said “The support has been incredible.”
The Fenton family pictured receiving gifts from the children at CWFD. Parents Laura and Kyle are holding their children Isabella and Harry.