Written by: Ate Charmain Tan, Vice President External
Itās Valentineās Day as we headed to Nicanor Garcia Elementary for a fun morning with the first and second graders. We welcomed Virus & Partners AsiaPacific, a digital agency founded in 2008. The company started with the founders Miguel, Mike, Andre, Justin, Anthony, and Mark, and has now grown to have more than 50 employees. It provides companies with effective and efficient marketing solutions that work in harmony with the internet. Operations manager Ate Cass headed the event for today as they share their love for the kids of Nicanor Garcia Elementary.
We introduced the volunteers to the very energetic kids. In line with Valentineās day, the volunteers shared how they were going to celebrate their Valentineās day. Most of them will spend it with their family and kids. They plan to have dinner and movie with their loved ones. We divided the 50 kids into five groups and the volunteers joined the kids. Everyone got to have their own ates and kuyas for the day. It was now the kidsā turn to introduce themselves. They shared what they wanted to be when they grow up. We also asked the teams to come up with their group names and group cheer. The first team was Winnie the Pooh of Ate Sally. The second team was Pata Tim of Ate Ara. For their cheer they did the āLaban laban bawi bawiā chant. The third team was Power Rangers of Kuya Andre. Fourth team was Happy Kids of the very energetic Kuya Otep. The last team was Team Panalo of Ate Cass and Kuya Miguel, who did a āpanalo panalo walang tataloā cheer. Most of the children wanted to be policemen, teachers, soldiers, doctors, and nurses. One of the adorable kids said she wanted to be Miss Universe like Pia Wurtzbach.
For the first activity we played the Rock Paper Scissors Challenge. Everyone was given a rubber band. Team members were to challenge one another in a rock paper scissors game. The winner gets the rubber band of person he beat. They had to challenge one another until one member ends up with all the rubber band, meaning he is the winner in that team. The winners then challenged one another until there was one grand champion. The winners per team were kids Sebastian from Winnie the Pooh, Alex from Pata Tim, Cielo from Happy Kids, and Ate Abby from Team Panalo. These winnera then went against one another until there was one champion.
The second activity we did was the Paper Cup Trivia. Teams formed a straight line and everyone got straws. Each team got 10 paper cups at the beginning of the line. We then gave questions with numerical answers. The number represented the number of paper cups the teams had to pass on to one another until the end of the line. It was funny watching the volunteers as they ended up sitting on the floor to match the height of the kids. That way passing on the cups were easier. Team Power Rangers ended up being the fastest and winning the game.
We then got to watch the magic show of Kuya Koby of the Salamangkero Group. He made doves fly out of pouches. Some went up the windows as the kids jumped and ran trying to reach for the doves. He also made several sticks pop up at once. A very cute bunny popped out of the planner as all the kids ran to the stage and petted the bunny.
After all the fun the volunteers got to share their lunch with the kids. We gave prizes to the winners of the group games and also individual prizes to the winners of the rock-paper-scissors challenge. Virus & Partners AsiaPacific gave out lots of gifts for the kids. Each of the kids received coloring books, storybooks, and a tote bag and pen set which the kids could draw on. One of the founders, Kuya Miguel, gave a message to the kids. We then had our group photo. It was a challenge to fit all one hundred people into the frame. We thank Ate Cass, the partners of the company, and the rest of the personnel for spending their time with the kids. We hope to partner with them again in the future.
