Written by: Ate Charmain Tan, Vice President External
It was a rainy saturday morning as we headed to Nayon ng Kabataan in Brgy Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City. It was a thanksgiving celebration of U! Happy Events’ past president and current secretary Ate Te. She celebrated her birthday last month and she wanted to share her blessings with these children. We were joined by some of our core team members and also our interns. Our partnership with Nayon ng Kabataan started in 2015 and this is our sixth event to date. It is an orphanage under the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWD) that cares for the neglected, abandoned, and abused children. The center has several houses where the children live. In addition to that they have a huge lawn area and basket court where they hold their activities. The children belong to different age groups and this morning we spent time with some of the kids from ages seven to ten. Some of them we already know from previous events and they excitedly say hi to welcome us.
We first gathered the volunteers and since not everyone knows one another we played an ice breaker game “Do you love me?”. The “it” player in the middle of the circle would randomly pick someone and as him “Do you love me?” If the person answered yes then everyone had to move around. If the answer was no then the person would give a category and those within the category would have to change spots. The last person who found a spot in the circle would be the next “It”. Some of the categories were “those wearing shorts” or “those wearing white”. It was a fun game as we got to be more comfortable with one another.
We grouped the kids into five and we divided the volunteers to join the teams. They got to know one another by talking about their favorite games and what the kids want to be when they group up. The kids like playing the popular Filipino games like habulan, tagu-taguan, and agawan base. They also came up with their group names namely, Team Dab, Team Cute, Team Mas Cute, Team Robin Hood, and Team Shark. It was funny as Team Mas Cute initially chose Cute as their group name but Team Cute went first so they decided to change it to Team Mas Cute.
For the first activity we played Stack Me Up. Each team was given 45 paper cups and they had to form the correct number of pyramids as specified. For instance, they were to form one big pyramid and five small pyramids using all the paper cups. Other categories included specific number and sizes of pyramids. The challenge was that all the paper cups had to be used. Sometimes one team finished first but they missed putting one paper cup. In the end Team Dab won the game.
The next activity we did was the Rice Planting game. Teams formed in straight lines and were given orange cones that were to be the “rice”. The first person in the team had to “plant” the cones by laying them all out vertically. The next person would then had to “harvest” by picking up all the cones. The members alternated planting and harvesting until all six players finished. It was great to watch as some of the adorable smaller kids tried to plant as fast as they could. They would sometimes knock out the cones while running and would hurriedly fix it. In the end Team Mas Cute won the game.
The last activity we played was the Ball Toss. Everyone formed two long lines facing one another, one line for the kids and one line for the volunteers. The volunteer side got the orange cones while the kid side got small balls. The kids had to throw the balls and the volunteer would catch it using the cone. Everyone would throw the ball at the same time on the go signal. If the ball dropped then the pair was eliminated. We did several rounds while the players stood further and further part from one another. In the end there were the Final 4 pairs whom we declared as the winners.
After all the excitement for the day we all settled down and enjoyed our fried chicken meal. Everyone happily ate with their ates and kuyas. We then gave out prizes to the winners of the group games and gave back packs to the four individual winners of the Ball Toss. One of the girls from Nayon ng Kabataan also showed us some dance steps as everyone followed. We then called on all the birthday celebrants for the month October and sang them a Happy Birthday song. As they blew out their candles the birthday kids excitedly got hold of the cupcake and started picking off it. Everyone then got an adorable Christmas Bear which they couldn’t resist but hugging. We also gave out some toys like portable piano and educational table toy to be shared by everyone. As we said our goodbyes we are reminded that as we continue to be blessed the more we are enriched by what we give.
