Written by: Ate Charmain Tan, External Vice President
It was a busy Saturday for U! Happy Events as we have several events planned for the day. This morning we headed to National Children’s Hospital in Quezon City. A government hospital under the Department of Healt (DOH), it has a wide range of pediatric subspecialties including cardiology, oncology, nephrology, intensive care, and others. We have partnered with NCH since 2010 and this is our 21st event with them. It is always heartbreaking to see these children having to go through an uphill battle at such as young age. Some of the children have leukemia and others have a very rare disease that might be terminal. Through the small things we do we hope to bring joy to these little fighters.
Today was the birthday celebration of Ate Lara who just turned 25. To celebrate her 25th birthday she wanted to share her blessings with the children of NCH. Her brother, Kuya Peter, volunteered with U! Happy Events in the past and together with their family they spent their morning with these adorable children. We first introduced the volunteers to the children. Ate Lara and her boyfriend Kuya Tong did a short acting scene for the kids. The volunteers then joined the children and formed into groups. Our face painting artist Kuya Eric did a wonderful job as the kids excitedly fell in line to have their favorite character painted. The boys mostly chose superheroes like batman and spiderman while the girls chose flowers.
The first activity we did was Act a Scene. Kuya Harvard gave some scenes and the groups had to act it out. The first one was “finding a unicorn on a rainbow”. The groups mostly did surprised and delighted faces as though they were seeing a unicorn for the first time. The next scene was “winning Miss Universe”. The kids did the famous Miss Universe wave and smiled at the crowd. Mommy Lanie did a spectacular re-enactment of being the pageant’s winner. She was a great sport and everyone cheered at her performance. There were winners in each round and we gave out prizes to the children of the winning group.
The next activity was the magic show of Kuya Kobe of the Salamangkero Group. One of the most popular magicians, he did a spectacular show as always. Doves flew out of pouches that seemed empty. He lit up several candle sticks as the sticks kept popping out. He made a birthday cake and a fluffy bunny appear on a platter. He drew a face on a white board and the eyes and mouth magically moved. The children kept laughing as they pointed at the board and kept shouting “it’s moving!” He ended his performance with the flying table act where the table magically flew above ground.
After the magic show we had an art workshop by Teacher Blanca. She taught the kids how to make fish origami. Everyone was given origami papers and they made it into cute colorful fishes. Eyes were attached to the fishes that made them look even cuter. They then put it on a blue board resembling underwater and they put green strips of paper that looked like seaweed. The volunteers helped the kids in making the origami and the kids were able to put it beside their beds to brighten up their space.
After the activities the kids got to enjoy lunch. The volunteers helped them back in their rooms as they got to know the children’s parents. Ate Lara and her family gave out hunger packs and bacon packs for the kids. As we ended the day we sang a Happy Birthday song for Ate Lara. She couldn’t help but be teary-eyed as her family joined her in celebrating her birthday with the children of NCH.
