Charlottetown brings Christmas cheer to Greek boys’ orphanage

Crew members from HMCS Charlottetown spread some holiday cheer by helping to clean the grounds of an orphanage in Chania, Greece, during Operation Reassurance. Photos by Cpl Blaine Sewell, Formation Imagery Services

Lt(N) Benoit Plante, HMCS Charlottetown ~

On Dec. 10, sailors from HMCS Charlottetown brought some Christmas cheer to an orphanage in Chania, Greece.

Supported by the ship’s logistics department, Charlottetown’s Padre, Lt(N) Haupi Tombing arranged for a visit from Santa Claus and some manual labour by 35 crew members.

“The ship’s company was really excited with the project. The sign-up sheet filled quickly and we even had to refuse some people as we didn’t have enough space to bring everyone on the bus,” said Lt (N) Tombing.

After some research, the padre found a group called Young People of Chania. This organization operates orphanages in Chania, Greece, both for boys and girls separately. One of these is an orphanage for boys called Branch of Protecting Children.

“Following a discussion with the director, we went to the boys’ orphanage. Currently, they have 31 boys living there,” said Padre Tombing. “The main goal of the organization is to provide shelter, education and guidance so that the boys can finish high school or college and stand on their own feet.”

The crew members did an astounding amount of work in and around the large playground in the backyard of the orphanage. They repainted the basketball net support structures and guard rails around the stairs, repaired broken bicycles, picked up a large amount of garbage on the ground, and did some landscaping and gardening.

Following the manual work, everyone gathered inside the orphanage for Christmas carols. A few minutes later, Santa arrived and all of the children received gifts.

“That was a great day. It was Christmas in true Canadian spirit: Giving! We achieved a large amount of work and made the backyard and playground a much more inviting place for the kids of the orphanage,” said Padre Tombing. “The work took us half a day, but the impact will most likely remain with the kids for a long time.”

Charlottetown is currently deployed on Operation Reassurance in support of NATO’s assurance and deterrence measures through the provision of military capabilities for training, exercises, demonstrations, and assigned NATO tasks.