Written by Core Team Trainee, Suszie Galang
It was a sunny and hot afternoon in Manila, who would have thought to have a Zumba workshop with kids and volunteers today, but this did not stop the team from pushing through.
Ate Abi who wanted to celebrate her birthday with us made this Zumba Workshop possible. 27 kids from Holy Family Home Foundation and 22 volunteers joined us for the afternoon. We let the kids and the Ates and Kuyas get to know each other by asking them to share within their group what their name is, who their kalokalikes are and their favorite sports.
After letting them get to know each other, we got everyone excited and pumped up by doing our first activity —- the Zumba Workshop with Ate Donna. The kids and volunteers were into the Zumba Workshop and were dancing left, right and center and gave it all they got and danced their hearts out. It was amazing to see how fast everyone was able to keep up with the instructions of Ate Donna. You would not even guess that most of them are first timers in Zumba. The energy in the room was truly electrifying!
After the Zumba Workshop, we let the kids and volunteers rest for a while and let them watch a magic show done by Kuya Beng of the Salamangkero Group. You saw the excitement and amazement of the kids and volunteers with every magic trick that the magician did. The kids were even asked to help out in some of the magic tricks and they so excited to help. As a bonus, the magician even gave a light show to everyone with the use of a light bulb and a flower.
We had one more activity before the snacks were served and this was the game called the Dance Showdown between the 5 groups. We played 6 different songs ranging from old school songs to more recent ones. All of the groups were great but there were one group who were amazing at dancing at emerged as the winner.
Before we ran out of energy for the last activity, we served them snacks. The kids were happy with the delicious pancit and brownies for dessert. While having the snacks, we had the volunteers and kids do profile exchanges for them to keep for remembrance. With the profile exchanges, this allowed the kids and volunteers to give small notes to each other to remember the afternoon spent together. Truly a perfect remembrance to a great afternoon.
We surprised Ate Abi after by singing happy birthday. As her gift, she gave the kids gifts of school supplies and toiletries before we had our final picture taking. Everyone had big smiles to give for a wonderful afternoon of Zumba, Magic, bonding and so much more. The kids gave their Ates and Kuyas big hugs as we made our goodbyes.
We thank all the friends, family and volunteers invited by Ate Abi for joining us for the afternoon! Your presence really made the afternoon more enjoyable for the kids. We hope to see you on our upcoming events as we share the love and joy to our other partner beneficiaries.