Final Reflection

Through my two years of engagement in the CAS program I have learnt many things and grown in many ways. I have not always been successful in meeting my goals, for example, I didn’t learn to swim. But the CAS program has kept me actively involved in extracurricular activities creating a balance which is very important in life, more so in the IB program where you tend to be overwhelmed with work. The most significant aspect for me is the service component. I am left with a strengthened passion for community service. The experiences I have gained through my service involvement have instilled a driving force in me and I know I will always be motivated by the memory of the satisfaction I gained through service at OSC. In addition, the program has not only strengthened my passion but has also given me the skills such as leadership, practical problem solving and just the skill of getting things done which will help me to realize this passion.

Global Issues

I addressed several global issues though the community service aspect of the program

• Childhood Cancer
• Poverty
• Victims of a natural disaster – the 2004 tsunami in South Asia
  

New Challenges

I am not a sporty person and any sporting venture, particularly football, was a challenge. The leadership roles I undertook during the program – Red House captain, Hope fpr Kids co-leader, WWW group co-leader - also were a challenge in the form of responsibility, accountability and collaboration with others. MUN was also a challenge because I had never done Model United Nations before and even though I am generally confident when it comes to public speaking, initially I was very hesitant because it involved debating about foreign policies and global issues.

  

Planning and Initiative

I demonstrated planning and initiative through all my leadership roles, particularly the charity concert ‘Versus Cancer’. Versus Cancer was an immense effort which required a considerable amount of planning especially since it was during the first semester of grade 12, the most strenuous semester.

Collaboration, Perseverance and Commitment
Again the charity concert called in a significant amount of collaboration. I faced many challenges but ultimately the concert was a success because of my perseverance and commitment to the project. I had to be committed to my creative writing too because often the tendency was to completely ignore it even though I had an idea or an inspiration to write about due to all the school work. However, I kept writing and I see I have improved greatly and I am starting to develop my own style of writing.

Developed New Skills, Awareness of Strengths and Areas for Growth

I developed leadership skills and became aware that I am good planning and getting things done methodically. I also learnt that I have a knack for practical thinking and problem solving in practical, real life situations. However I must grow in my involvement in physical activity as I see that is something lacking in my daily routine. I must develop a sense of consistency. Another area for growth is of course my writing which I will continue to do.

Ethical Implications

Throughout my service involvement I was constantly forced to consider the ethical implications of my actions and decisions. This occurred particularly during the concert as I was making financial decisions and I had to consider if it was worth spending so much money on a certain aspect, if it was a waste, if the return in terms of awareness and fundraising would be worth it etc. Through MUN I was also forced to consider the larger implications of countries’ foreign policies and certain actions which were taken for their own interest but could be detrimental for other counties. I truly learnt to appreciate the role of the UN and other international and national governing bodies as coming to a consensus and making a decision is an extremely difficult thing.

CAS Activites Undertaken in Grade 11 & 12

2009/ 2010

Creativity

• Debating
• COMUN 2010
• SLMUN 2010
• Production of 'The Crucible'
• Red House Captain
• Hope for Kids co-leader
• Week Without Walls group co-leader
• UN Day Sri Lanka country performance
• Creative writing

Service

• Week Without Walls – Hambantota
• Hope for Kids – Cancer Hospital Project (co-leader)

Action

•  SAISA Football training
• Yoga
•   Dancing
•  Daily walks

2010/ 2011

Creativity

•  Versus Cancer – charity concert
•  Hope for Kids co-leader
•  Creative writing
•   SGA Grade 12 Rep 

Service

• Hope for Kids
• STITCH – Sri Lankan Youth Volunteer Programme

Action

•  Daily walks
•  Badminton

Whack the Shuttlecock!

I cannot play badminton to save my life. I just can’t seem to connect the racket and the shuttlecock. So I decided to learn to play and started the after school badminton activity on Mondays with my friend Malindie. Now Malindie can play pretty well and the idea was that she would teach me. But she ended up loosing to 7 year old Lenny! Young Jun played with me and was very, very patient. I got pretty frustrated and demoralized but it was only my first day. But I had hit the shuttlecock a few times and I was happy (: I’m continuing to play badminton whenever we are free after school till the seniors leave.

Week Without Walls

Global Issue

Week Without Walls is a week set aside by OSC for learning outside the class ranging from outdoor education for the lower grades to community service for higher grades. This year Grade 11 visited two preschools in Hambantota which had been built and financed by OSC after the tsunami in 2004. The tsunami affected many countries and thousands of people. Through this project we were responding to the issue of poverty as well as recovery after the tsunami.

New Challenge

This was a new challenge for me since I had not been involved in big community service projects before. In addition, I was the leader of my group and I was responsible for the organization of the gifts, supervising the clean up and re-painting work done by my group, motivating them and communicating with the villagers. 

Planning and Initiative

As the leader I had to organize the gift packages along with my co-leader and the leaders of the other group. We collected SLR 1000 from each person in the grade and decided to buy a doll/ car, school bag, tshirt and assorted stationery items for each child. I got the toys from Pettah, a local market where things are really cheap, the tshirts from Pamunuwa also for a lower price and the bags by a reputed bag making company, P.G. Martins, for cost price. All the leaders went out and got the stationary items and together with the rest of the grade we packed everything in the school bags. We did this before we left so we would not have to be worried about the gifts in Hambantota. Both schools had two blank walls so we planned the drawings for the murals in school. We also planned the performance for the final day so we could take whatever we required with us.

Day 1 - Leave OSC and arrive at the Peacock beach hotel in Hmbantota
Day 2 - Meet the kids and start work!
Day 3 - Continue working
Day 4 - Touch ups in the morning with a performance by the preschoolers in the afternoon
Day 5 - Homeward bound

Collaboration, Perseverance & Commitment

My group worked really hard on the two full days we had. Our target was to get most of the work done in two days and on the third day do touch ups and neatening in the morning as the performance by the kids was in the afternoon. I delegated the work as inside walls, outside walls and playground equipment. I gave the highest walls to the boys and the more delicate work like the grills which required patience to clean to the girls. I was really impressed by the way everyone worked collaboratively helping each other out when a problem arose. The heat really affected us by midday but we kept working as managed to finish most of the work on target.

Develop New Skills, Awareness of Strengths & Areas for Growth

Through WWW I developed leadership skills. It was quite a stretch as I had to keep tabs on what everyone was doing, responding to the mothers and the teachers of the preschool as well as contributing to the work being done. I get very irritable when its hot so I had to watch my temper. I also learnt to tactfully deal with other, hot, irritable people since by evening we were all exhausted and the dry heat was very hard on all of us, especially the foreigners. I learnt how to paint a wall! (:

Ethical Implications

Working for those kids and being with them was an extremely full filling experience, one that I will treasure all my life. Even though we did some great service I am forced to think whether it was a practical use of the money as the school spent a lot of money on our hotel and transport. I feel that money could have been used to benefit those villagers and we could have undertaken a project closer to school. 

STITCH

STITCH is a youth volunteer group in Sri Lanka which is 'commited to educating and advocating social change'. They are currently undertaking a flood relief programme.I really want to volunteer but I don't have the time with exams coming up. Since I am on the board of writers for The Chokolaate Magazine, a teenage magazine in Sri Lanka, I wrote to them asking them if I could start a colomn for them in the magazine. They want youth volunteers and this would be great publicity for them. They agreed to it and after a meeting with the board this weekend I will start a column in the magazine.

Their blog is - http://www.stitchmovement.com/

However, I would be paid for this column and it would be extremely unethical of me to profit from something I am doing to help this group. It would seem like I am doing it purely out of self-interest so I decided that I would donate the money I recieve for the column to STITCH. This is also an extension of my writing skills as I am utilizing them for service.

Scribbles

I have always enjoyed writting and scribbled out little paragraphs of whatever I was feeling. I hated any form of construction and confinement in writing and imagine my annoyance at my mother's insistence that I write poetry. So to please her I took it up. This was a challenge for me as I found it hard to condense my thougts at first but now I love writing poetry. I began just expressing my thoughts but now I have transitioned into writing as a technical excerise. Recently I have been experimenting with different literary devices and how and to what extent they can be used to express something. I have kept writing however busy I am with school work. I also find it very relaxing actually. Looking back on my work I see how my writing skills have developed and I also see I am developing my own distinct style. Writing is my passion, vying for first place with drama, and I know I will continue to write and grow as a writer.

I began a blog for my work -  http://streamofscribbles.blogspot.com/

Now?

There are two competitions I'm writing for at the moment. The Commonwealth Essay Competition and a competition organised by the English Writer's Co-operative of Sri Lanka.

Future?
I also hope to write a novel to be entered for the Gratiaen Prize. The Gratiaen Prize is an annual literary prize for best work of literary writing in English by a resident Sri lankan founded by Michael Ondatjee.

Cancer Hospital

In the meetings after the concert we mainly discussed other fundraising opportunities we might have such as school events like the Food and Fun Fair in March. We have also been discussing how we could use the money we raised from the concert. We used some of the money to buy gifts for the children in the wards for Christmas. We got toy vehicles for the boys and bead sets and dolls for the girls. The grade 9 girls bought and wrapped the presents while the grade 11s made 100 odd cards. We visited the hospital on the last CAS day before Christmas break and distributed the gifts and cards. The smiles and happy faces of the children were very rewarding. However we could not visit all the wards ourselves as some wards had H1N1 patients and we were not allowed in due to the risk of infection.

This semester Malindie and I focused on selecting the next leaders. We watched levels of enthusiasm and responsibility shown not only this semester but also last semester. After discussing with our supervisor Ms. Tanuja and also with Ms. Devika and Ms. Shameela we chose Upandha from grade 9 and Sandushi from grade 11. Upandha is very responsible and committed but her only problem, which we advised her on, is that she is too soft at times and takes everything on her shoulders. Sandushi is also quiet but responsible and stable and more capable of delegating work.

Hope for Kids has been invited to take part in a walk organized by the Sri Lanka Cancer Society on the 12th of March. They also sent us awareness bands which we started selling on campus and plan to sell at the Food and Fun Fair.

Versus Cancer

Hope for Kid's fundraising concert 'Versus Cancer' was a huge effort by the organising committe especially considering that the concert was in the first semester of grade 12, the semester which has the heaviest load of work.

Global Importance
Cancer is a global issue which effects millions of people worlwide. Hope for Kids focuses on the child patients of the Maharagama Cancer Institute.

New Challenge
Malindie and I have had a brief, minor experience in organising a concert with the interact club of our previous school but this was a big challenge for us and the rest of the committee. Our concert not only involved the OSC community but outside schools as well. Publicity and logistic aspects of the concert were also major challenges.

Planning and Initiation
OSC had not had a student-organized concert of this scale before. As the co-leader of the service group, my main aims were to raise money (targeted amount SLR 175,000) and to increase OSC's interaction with other schools. We started planning for the concert 3 months ahead in May. I delegated the work among the members of the committee as Priyanka - Publicity, Tara and Thishakya - Sponsorships and Malindie and I handled light and sound equipment and performers. However this delegation did not mean we couldn't help each other but ensured someone was responsible for completing the work.We also planned to get awareness t-shirts done in time for the concert.

Developed Skills, Awareness of Strengths & Areas for Growth
Pulling this concert together required an immense effort considering my organizing committee wasn't very strong.

• I had to learn the rather tedious process of going through several levels for approval to do anything. Things didn't happen as fast as I wanted them to sometimes and I tended to get impatient. For example even the simple task of drafting a letter required Mr. Coles' and Mrs. Williams' signatures, Mr. Coles' had to proof read it and I had to run between the councellor's secretary and the printing office.
• I became very good at drawing on personal connections and other people's connections to get things done. For example, our printing was sponsored by a parent from the primary school and I was able to contact performers who I knew were good. I also got the tshirts printed for cost price through one of my father's friends.In addition, the photographs of the childern were done for free by one of my friend's sister who is a professional photographer.
• During the process of putting up posters and promoting the concert I learnt how to deal appropriately with different people and what to say to appeal to them and how to get things done. For example I was on my own at Jazz Sunday at the CR and FC grounds and had to deal with the manager.
• I also learnt to weigh the situation and act practically and take decisions quickly. The initial estimates for sound equipment I got were for SLR 100,000 but Mr. Rana the auditorium manager got it done for SLR 30,000. At Jazz Sunday I quickly realized people weren't responding to the posters so I spoke to the manager got the poster photocopied and handed it out as a flyer.
• I also became acutely aware of the fact that things do go wrong despite the most meticulous planning.
• Time management was a key skill I had to master to cope with school work and the concert work.
• Keeping accounts, especially after the concert when dealing with ticket sales, was stressful but I learnt to keep a track of every inflow and outflow of money and to have a record with the business office.

Perseverance and Committment
 I had a lot of pressure from my parents to focus more on my school work because we were in the middle of important coursework. We also faced numerous problems in the organisation process. Despite the difficulties within the committee itself and coping with internal assessments, I managed to carry out my objective and the concert was a great success. We raised nearly SLR 250,000, well over my maximum target.

Ethical Implications
There were many personal issues and differences within the committee which reduced my morale at times. The word I had delegated was not done and I ended up doing the bulk of the work. By nature I am a hot tempered person but my co-leader, who is also my best-friend, is very calm and together we dealt with the issues to the best of our ability. We tried our best not to carry the issues into other aspects of school and get teachers involved and resolve our conflicts in a mature manner. Even though we had our differences, I was really impressed with the way everyone on the committee pulled together on the day of the concert. The fact that we worked collaboratively and everything flowed smoothly was what made the concert successful.

Seconds (:

So I finally put some of my photos on MSN's Skydrive.. I tried to create a Flickr account but the internet is being an annoyance and technology is against me, as usual.

I love taking photos! I'm very picky about light and angles and photography really interests me.. These are some pictures I have taken over the past year..

http://cid-bdae6da55b0bd047.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=BDAE6DA55B0BD047!110&authkey=OEHxlWgphJg%24

Versus Cancer

This video was created by Upandha Udalagama for the concert. This is what we opened the show with so the audience had a clear idea of our cause and what we were doing at the Cancer Hospital as a group.

And the day was saved byyy…. Facebook!

Murphy’s Law - Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Ms. Shameela had a brilliant idea to get pictures of the kids and blow them and display them in the foyer of the auditorium on the night of the concert. Since we needed really good quality photos I contacted my friend’s sister, Natalie Soysa, who is a professional photographer. She agreed to do it for free but we had to organize transport for her. So I told Ms. Shameela to organize a school van to go pick her up on Thursday since the group was planning to go to the hospital on Thursday, our first visit to the hospital this semester.

Since during these few months of organizing I’ve learnt to double check and that things  WILL go wrong at the last minute I went and checked with Ms. Shameela during lunch…. and found that she hadn’t organized anything! We both went to see Ms. Tanuja… and found out she hadn’t booked a van for Hope for Kids to go to the hospital! Ms. Shameela quickly ran around and sorted out the transport after a lot of begging and sweet talk.

Meanwhile I had to get in touch with Natalie to inform her of the time the van would be there to pick her up… and my phone died on me! And when I put my sim in Malindie’s phone I found I hadn’t saved Natalie’s number on the sim card’s memory. So I tried Facebook for Natalie’s number and then sent her a message hoping to god she’ll be on Facebook….

Malindie was busy Googling her and going through her Flicker, Twitter and Facebook for the number. She even tried online telephone directories! And I was next to her texting people hoping they’d know some way I could get in touch with her and calling all sorts of people to ask if they knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who might know Natalie’s number….

And then she replied on Facebook!

So after a few complications we all got to the hospital… to find the playroom padlocked and no one had the key! So we got some kids to come down and we played with them in the garden. We learnt that the playroom had been shut for three months now since the teacher we employed had a baby and she hasn’t been coming. It’s really not fair to expect her to come but we have to find a new teacher soon. They playroom can’t be shut up depriving the kids of some place to play.

Natalie was taking pictures of the kids… and some attendant starts yelling and making a scene that we can’t take pictures! I tried explaining to him that we had the director Dr. Kanisha’s permission but he kept insisting for a form. So I got Ms. Shameela on the phone and he calmed down. Finally.

But we had a nice time with the kids and I’m sure we got some lovely pictures. When we went up to the ward me and Thishakya saw a child not even a year old and we both felt so sick. A child that young having cancer! I held a little girl who had leukemia and I felt so sorry for her and the mother. The girl had the most beautiful eyes.

Really, we have no right to complain about life. 

Poster Pasting

We got the posters and tickets today! Along with Ms. Tanuja, the girls in the committee and some boys from other schools who were performing we went around Colombo putting up posters. I had spoken to Ms. Shameela and organized a van for us and I also prepared a list of places grouped by the areas they were in. First, we went to Water’s Edge and gave them a few posters along with a ticket book. We then continued on to Colombo. Ms Tanuja dropped us at Odel and went to CR&FC to ask if we could sell tickets at Jazz on Sunday. Jazz is quite a popular event at the CR&FC grounds to which all the young people flock to. This would an excellent opportunity for us to spread the word. While she was doing that I split us up into 3 groups. Malindie and Stephan stayed at Odel and put up a poster and talked to them about selling tickets at Odel. Arun and Priyanka went to CoCo Verandah which was a 2 minute walk away. Amit, Kasun and I went to Budz, a nearby restaurant. We also put us posters at 2 popular salons on the way. Ms Tanuja came shortly and we headed off to the area of Colombo where the hotels were located. Tara and Priyanka were dropped off at Barefoot and me, Amit and Kasun got off at Mc Donalds. Amit and I walked all the way down Galle Road to the Cinnamon Grand putting up posters along the way! It was quite a tiring day and it was well past 1 when we got back to Pellawatte. 

Excercise and Quality Time (=

During the summer I have been taking daily walks in the morning often with my mother. As well as good exercise for both of us, it has become a mother-daughter bonding time away from the cares of the housework and my four year old brother. My grandmother is diabetic and overweight and she came for a week to my house and somehow never left. Her health problems have scared me and my mum into eating healthy and getting some sort of regular exercise. I have also been doing Pilates for 45 minutes twice or thrice a week. It is difficult but I’ve noticed I’ve become more flexible. 

Versus Cancer

It’s the end of the summer and now I fully realize the gravity of Ms. William’s words as she gave me approval for the charity concert and told me “You getting yourself into a lot of work.” Getting permission and drafting the proposal to be put forward to Mr. Coles and Ms. Williams was itself quite a task. Next I had to draft invitation letters to be sent to the local schools requesting their participation, get them approved by Mr. Coles and mailing them. It didn’t end there as I had to chase after certain people from the schools principals, friends, interact presidents and so on.

Organizing auditions was a real learning process as I didn’t realize how many people are involved and how many peoples’ co-operation is required to make something work. In this case I had to get Mr. Coles and Ms. Williams approval and then notify Mr. Chithra (head of security) and work out a convenient time with Mr. Kolitha (head of maintenance) and Mr. Rana (auditorium manager). There was a lot of emailing and I learnt that the proper procedure has to be followed and you can get peoples’ cooperation by being open, flexible and just being nice. We had auditions in the OSC auditorium on the 10^th of June and the 24^th of July. The second audition started off with a lesson that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I had a presentiment that day and unfortunately I couldn’t get to school early like I planned. When I got to school I found that Mr. Rana had completely forgotten about the auditions, the security didn’t know what was going on and they had started maintenance work in the auditorium so the place was a mess! But the guards were cooperative and I managed to scare the workers into finding me at least 2 mics and 2 industrial fans (:

Getting sponsorships was a relatively easy task as Ms. Dilhara from the administrative office handled sending the letters. But at the moment we have Mobitel as our premium sponsor and The Sunday Times as our print media sponsor and I am a bit worried as we need more money. The sound equipment will cost around Rs. 60,000 and the printing cost will be around Rs. 20,000. That’s a total cost of around Rs. 80,000 and we only have Rs. 30,000. 

We are human beings not savages.

After the Colombo Model United Nations conference ended I suggested starting a debating activity to Ms. Wolfe with Mr. O’Kane as the teacher sponsor. I became the student leader of the activity. Unfortunately I couldn’t do much since activities were disrupted by changes in the time table, exams and holidays. However we did debate a local issue which turned out to be quite a heated debate.

In May the local media was in an uproar over the case of a mother throwing her baby in the Kelaniya river. The mother was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. The mother’s action does sound horrendous until you look into the details of the hardships they had to endure. This 3 year old boy was the youngest of 5 siblings. The father, a heavily indebted alcoholic, had left the family and only returned infrequently to steal the little money the mother managed to scrape by selling lottery tickets. While he was with her he was in the habit of drinking heavily and coming home to beat her up brutally. The mother is also a tsunami victim. Unable to feed the children, she had repeatedly tried to hand over the child to the government probation office, the police, and orphanages and even tried leaving him at the Kelaniya temple in the hope that someone would care for him. This incident happened one day after a failed attempt at leaving him at the temple. When crossing the bridge she threw him into the river on impulse. He was rescued by a trishaw driver and was in the ICU for a few days before he passed away.

The local media was very biased towards the child and hardly anyone empathized with the mother. I supported her because I have a little brother of 4 and I know how the child crying can get on your nerves at time and I amplified this and was able to imagine what it would be like for a clinically depressed woman in an abusive relationship living in bad living conditions with 5 children solely dependant on her.

There was a clear divide among the group. I was really annoyed with the opposition members who actually believed she should be tried for murder! My point was that she should be put through a rehabilitation process and given back the other 4 children. And what enraged me even more was the hypocrisy of the Sri Lankan government. After this incident the probation office, which had refused the child, took custody of the other FOUR children. In Sri Lanka an average of 2 children are killed per week simply because their parents cannot provide them with food for survival. With such a glaring problem the government should be addressing the wider issue of poverty rather than trying to throw an already clinically depressed woman into jail!

Stretch!

Last Monday I joined the after school dancing activity, partly because I was forced to and partly because I need the hours. This traditional Sri Lankan dancing activity is conducted by Mr. Malith and Mr. Hashan who are professional dancers. There were a lot of stretching exercises involved and some demanded co'ordination and balance. I am not the most co-ordinated, graceful person and I had a lot of fun laughing at myself. My legs hurt so much after the strenuous stretching exercises! 

The next day I joined the after school yoga activity which is also conducted by Mr. Malith. Again this demanded a lot of balance and concentration which I hope to achieve over time. I'm hoping the combined effects of the dancing and yoga will help me to firm up my muscles and be in a reasonably good shape. 

Up =)

• We had the primary movie afternoon today in the PMPR at 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm. 
• 30 kids showed up and we collected a total of Rs. 10,200. 
• The movie we showed was 'Up' a really fascinating movie about an old man and a house with balloons attached to it that flies by Pixar.

I asked the canteen to make the drinks for us and I gave them a cordial bottle this morning. I was depending on them to have empty mega bottle but unfortunately they had just got rid of the yesterday! So I salvaged two mega bottles from the recycling room which I gave to Rukshan to wash and fill with the drink. I spoke to Rukshan and he gave us 30 packets of popcorn for Rs. 25 each.

We have noticed that the clothes lines at the hospital are not enough and the mothers tend to hang their washing out on bushes and railings. Most of these clothes end up on the ground raising hygienic concerns. I spoke to Mr. Kolitha and got 4 wooden poles and nylon rope along with a mason's spade, a crowbar and some cement reasy to take to the hospital last evening. But unfortunately we couldn't set the lines up without permission from the director, Dr. (Mrs.) Yoganathan. I sent her a letter asking permission today and I hope she gets back to us soon. In the letter I also asked to meet her next Thursday if possible.

The Crucible

'The Crucible' by Aurthur Miller was a production by the Visual Art and English Department of OSC directed by Ms. Abeywardena. It is a play about the hysteria whipped up by the witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is set in a Puritan society where social norms almost constrict the people. Abigail, a young girl enraged when her clandestine affair with her employer, John Proctor, is terminated by him starts a witch hunt. Her ulterior motive is to accuse Elizabeth, Proctor's wife, and have her hung as revenge for dismissing her from her position as a maid in the Proctor household. The witch hunt is soon blown out of proportion and the whole village descends into hysteria. The play also functions as a political allegory for the hysteria created by McCarthyism in the late 1940's.

I was cast for the role of Tituba. Tituba is a black slave from the Caribbean. Though she is a minor character, she plays a key role in the play in that she knows witch craft such as conjuring spirits and communicating with the devil and introduces it to the girls.Even with my advantage as a drama student, this was an extremely challenging role for me, especially in terms of the characterization of a black slave. In addition, we choreographed a movement piece for the opening of the play. I am not the most flexible, graceful person on earth and adopting the raw physicality of Tituba was a challenge. But I managed to play Tituba quite sucessfully and I was extremely pleased with the extent to which I grew as a performer by widening my skills.

Cancer is a word, not a sentence

We organized a secondary movie afternoon today to raise funds for the Cancer Hospital. It was in the auditorium at 3.00 pm. Entrance was Rs. 250/- and brownies were sold at Rs. 50/-.

We raised approximately Rs. 5000/-.

Approximately 5 people showed up, apart from the Cancer Hospital people. I am extremely disappointed by OSC's lack of enthusiasm for ANYTHING.

To publicize the even I created a Facebook event and had the poster included in the newsletter and the daily bulletin. We put up posters around school and told a lot of people about the movie afternoon. Today during both breaks I went around telling people to come support us. Some people were nice enough to donate money even though they could not make it.

Our next project will be a joint charity concert with the Interact Club of Royal College. We are planning to have it in early September in the OSC auditorium. We also plan to have performances by local bands and performances by the students of OSC and other invited schools.


We also plan to get awareness t-shirts done and hopefully put it on sale at ODEL. A slogan I found on the internet which I think is very powerful is - Cancer is a word, not a sentence.

Food & Fun Fair - 13th March

The FFF is an exellent opportunity to fund raise for CAS projects. SO, we exploited it (: To raise funds for the Cancer Hospital Project we sold yellow awareness hair ribbons and bracelets for Rs. 50/- each. We also painted a yellow sun, the Hope for Kids logo, with face paint for Rs. 50/- The face paint was more of an awareness raising idea as the sun is a common feature we found in all of the kids' drawings. They always always draw a sun. Maybe it's a symbol of hope for them. I walked around the whole time selling the ribbons and I was very tired, especially since it was very hot and the SGA ran out of drinks! We raised approximately Rs. 6000/- (: