Written by: Kuya Glenn Costales, President
A group of kind and quirky friends made up our volunteers for a spirited Sunday afternoon with 25 kids from Operation Blessing in Pasig City. This gathering introduced us to Ate Sam, a young professional set to celebrate her birthday right the next day. With her were her timid but game friends. Another set of students from St. Paul College in Pasig City rounded out our roster of kuyas and ates for the day.
This was one of those highly active events where there were games, some more games and a bit more after that. Our line-up of contests consisted of some mental challenge, tests of memory, and well, sheer luck.
Before competing as teams, it was every man for himself as the entire group played the Bato-Bato-Pick Challenge. We gave each kid, kuya and ate 2 rubber bands which served as their ‘lives’ throughout the game. The participants simply went around the venue to challenge each other in 2 rounds of Bato-Bato-Pick. The winning players got the rubber bands of their counterparts and the 3 with the most rubber bands at the end of the game got prizes.
We then got started in our group games with the Stack Me Up game. This warranted some mental decoding to figure out the number of cups needed for the pyramid sizes needed. This sure stretched everyone’s minds a bit longer while offering a time of team-oriented enjoyment along the way.
The 3rd game we played was the Replacements game. This time, we needed the participants to be both sharp in their visual memory and expressive in their interaction with each other. A photo was shown to 1 representative from each group which he/ she then had to instruct the rest of their teammates to replicate. They had to mirror whatever was in the group photo – hand gestures, facial expressions, body positions and all.
The final game we played was the Pass the Charades. As it is aptly named, the teams had to pass the message – charades style. We had animals as the category so the little kids could comprehend them easier and also, we just wanted to see how the adults would do it. It took several rounds of amusing impressions but we did get a winner.
An afternoon snack had never been more deserved after the lively activities. Some fried chicken strips and spaghetti is always a welcome meal and this made their rounds to the kids. Ate Sam was then serenaded with a happy birthday before she gave out loot bags to the 25 excited kids.
Happy birthday again, Ate Sam. The Sunday afternoon may have started out slow but everyone’s energy eventually helped elevate the event to truly fun heights.
