Written by: Kuya Justin Regino, Core Member
Normally, long weekends due to holidays such as the Eid Al Fitr celebration this June 15, 2018 are spent by people travelling out of town, going on a shopping spree in malls, or simply resting at home after days of tiring work. However, for Kuya Phil, despite the rainy season, this holiday was the perfect time to have an advanced celebration of his 25th birthday anniversary with the children of We Care Foundation, located in Libis, Quezon City.
We Care Barangay Outreach is a ministry of CCF Eastwood whose primary advocacy is to transform homes into Christ committed families through a holistic program bannered by values formation seminars using Biblical truth as its foundation. Their mission is upholding the roles of the parents in the transformation of families and barangays in becoming communities of Christ committed followers. With the change that We Care Foundation wishes to make in our country, choosing them as a beneficiary was the perfect way for Kuya Phil, together with his friends, to have a meaningful birthday celebration, while contributing to the cause of the organization.
The event began at 10:30 am in the morning and was facilitated by Kuya Joms and Kuya Alvin, core members of U! Happy Events. Twenty-eight energetic kids, from ages 8 to 11, joined the celebration while Kuya Phil was accompanied by two of his friends from PUP College, Ate Glezee and Ate Ann.
As an ice breaker, the kids played a little exercise entitled, “The Boat is Sinking”. The goal of this game is for all participants to group themselves according to the number specified by our facilitators. In the last round, they were asked to form five teams of five to six children. Our three volunteers and two of our U! Happy representatives were then asked to join a group whom they will lead in the upcoming activities. The kids introduced themselves to their Ate’s and Kuya’s by sharing their name, favorite rainy day food and favourite rainy day activity. Finally, the groups came up with their own unique names such as Team Cute led by Ate Glezee, Team Oppa led by Ate Belle, Team Mastermind led by Ate Ann, Team RNG (Royal Never Give-up) led by Kuya Phil and Team Rainbow led by Ate Meanne.
The first activity was a game called “Pass the Charades”. Each team was asked to form a straight line. For each round, the representative in the first row will receive a word from the animal category such as “dog” or “kangaroo” given by our facilitators. He or she must then act out the animal, without speaking any words, to the second member who will then pass it on to the next, until it reaches the last. The last member must guess which animal is being portrayed by his or her teammates then run to the facilitator to tell him the answer. The first group to guess correctly gets the point for their team. Pass the Charades is a game designed to test the creativity of our kids, together with the value of following rules. After a four rounds, Team Cute led by Ate Glezee emerged victorious after securing two wins using their all-out acting skills.
The second activity was a game called “Fax Machine”. Similar to Pass the Charades, this game involves guessing a secret word given to a group’s representative. However, instead of acting out animals, the representative must draw a certain shape at the back of their teammate using their fingers and pass it on, until it reaches the last member. The last person must then guess the shape drawn on his back, ink the shape on paper and give it to our facilitators – the first one to correctly draw the given shape, wins. In this game, the group of our celebrant, Kuya Phil and Team RNG was able to make a comeback after getting two winning rounds and claim the prize.
The third activity was a performance by Kuya Koby, the famous lead magician of U!Happy Events. Kuya Koby impressed everyone with a wide variety of tricks. The ones which brought the most amazement were the magical appearance of doves out of nowhere, inanimate drawings which suddenly moved and sang with the music, and the finale which was making a table levitate through air.
After two hours of fun, sweat and laughter, it was now time to replenish everyone’s energy with delicious food prepared by our celebrant. The kids were served a balanced meal of chicken, pancit and rice, just the right dish to reenergize them after a series of tiring activities. After lunch, as giveaway gifts, our volunteers distributed pillows to our kids. Our kids, in return, showed their gratitude to Kuya Phil by singing him a birthday song. Finally, after the group photo of our participants, our kids said their goodbye with hugs and thanks to our generous volunteers who chose to spend the holiday with them.
As the saying goes, “Holidays are the perfect times to reflect on our blessings and seek out ways to make life better for those around us”. Indeed, our event was an embodiment of this statement. At a young age, Kuya Phil has taught us that the purpose life is to make a difference in the quality of other people’s lives. Through sponsors like Kuya Phil and his friends, sooner or later, we are able to achieve our vision of providing sustainable support and teaching values to marginalized children through meaningful activities.
