Share Your Blessings

giving hope and sharing love

Birthday Project 2012 at Don Bosco School Manila

I really don’t know where to start. It’s been months already and I can still remember what happened during that day. Well, actually I can still recall the moment we decided to start and plan for this year’s Birthday Project. Since Coe has already shared a very good narration of what had happened, I’ll just share my side of the story. By the way, hands down to my good friend Coe for doing such a wonderful post. It’s her first time to do a narrative blog post as she’s more on the reflective and intellectual kind of write ups compare to mine. Hahaha! Good job Coekie!!! ^_^

Okay let’s start this looong narration of the event before the year ends!

banner by Nico Orillano

As soon as we got up, we followed up our suppliers and confirm the delivery time. While I was preparing the programme and other stuff, Coe and Ian went to Market Market to pick up 10 dozens of Pastel fresh from Camiguin! While they are getting those delicious treats I am confirming the headcount, volunteers and other suppliers for the day’s activity. After lunch, we all went to DBS to setup and prepare everything.

arranging the school’s New Canteen

volunteers preparing the materials

We were stationed at the New Canteen, very much different from the way I pictured it. So many things have changed but it’s all good. The volunteers arrived one by one and I was really happy to see them. It was fortunate that these good-hearted people trusted me coz I really don’t know most of them. We just communicated thru emails and SMS and there they are, very much willing to give a helping hand. We started with a prayer led by Ian to guide us for that momentous event.

grouping the children

The kids were already at the entrance and they were asked to fall in line in groups of 10. It was a bit disorganized but luckily was able to control it. Special thanks to my Grade School adviser, Ms. Pineda now Mrs. Oliveros for also helping us that day. The group leaders, known as Mother Goose/Father Goose were chosen to lead each group throughout the activity.

 

I first asked them their names and grade level before they head off to the food carts c/o Ton O Fun! The kids loved the cotton candy and popcorns! Who wouldn’t?!

asking their names and grade level

So after some sugar intake of these kids, we introduced ourselves and gave them a bit of a background of who we are and what we’re doing. We are hoping that they will get inspired and be grateful for the things they have may it be big or small.

group 1’s turn to enjoy the food carts

Here are the activities that day:

Create your own Party Hats

Father Goose of the group helping his team in making their party hats

We gave them pink strip of Pink Cartolina paper (c/o Nico) and a box of 24-pc crayons to test their artistic skills. It would be nice to see how they want their party hats to look like. Everyone was serious with their craft since we’re giving a prize to the best Party Hat-Nametag.

children fitting their party hats

After a few minutes, the volunteers picked the best hats on their group. We got the best 3 hats and eliminate by choosing the person who has the loudest clap from the audience. The winner by unanimous decision was Brenalyn.

best party hat winner, Brenalyn!

She even sang a song to us ‘coz the crowd was howling and teasing her to sing. She was shy at first but then sang “Hulog ng Langit” and everyone sang with her. Such a talented kid!

GAME 1 – Arrange Yourselves

arrange yourselves

checking if the arrangement is correct

The game was facilitated by Ian. We prepared 5 categories (Name in Alphabetical order, Height, Shoe Size, Birthday and Number of Siblings) but we had a tie. It was hard since everyone’s quite competitive. The tie breaker was the Grade Level category. Team 4 won the game.

team 4 winners

Welcoming the CCA Manila Team

CCA Manila Team

Finally, the star of the night has arrived. With the help of friend networking, we were able to collect more than 500 signatures who supports our cause. Because of this, the CCA Manila team generously sponsored the kid’s meal and even prepared some loot bags for them. The food they prepared for the kids: Spaghetti, Chicken Fingers with Gravy and a Choco Revel slice for dessert. They have drinks included too!

CCA Manila Team

The team consists of the following: Ms. Lovely, Chef Jel, Chef Regina, Chef Marge, Chef Jenny and Chef Camille

GAME 2 – Bring Me

While CCA Manila is preparing the food, we had our second game. The famous, Bring Me game!

Bring me the person who has the longest hair length!

As Coe said, we were literally “mobbed” during this game. Hahaha!

Food Distribution by CCA Manila

Sr. Carm starting the prayer before meals

Food distribution of CCA Manila

As soon as the CCA team finished preparing the food, Sr. Carm led the prayer before meals. A birthday song was sang afterwards before they enjoy the food that was prepared for them. Of course, group pictures per team is a must. The “most behaved” group was the first one to be called followed by the next and so forth.

Group Picture

Group Picture – photo grabbed from Coe’s blog

kids enjoying their meals

While the team was distributing the food, a special person came  and she’s none other than, Kcat Yarza. She was one of my inspirations to be strong, be grateful and be generous no matter what your circumstances are. She gave a bagful of goodies for the kids too! However, she can’t stay long since they are also celebrating the birthday of her sister, Talitha. It was so nice of her to drop by the school and say Hi to the kids.

special guest: Kcat Yarza

 

GAME 3 – Human Bingo

explaining the Human Bingo rules

After dinner and some rest time, another game was done. This time, a more challenging game that requires them to get to know the people who are with them that day. The Human Bingo is similar to a bingo game where they have to fill up the boxes to win. Each box contains a description of a person that they have to look for in the crowd. This will help them to mingle in a different manner.

signing and filling up the Bingo boxes

This time, considering the sugar level of these kids, it was chaotic! Literally! Running, shouting, name it! Hahaha! The first 10 who correctly completed the papers won and were given prizes which are lunch boxes sponsored by Nuffnang.

 

GAME 4 – Longest Line

Longest Line game

The final game was the Longest Line. I have to warn them not to take off their clothes. They were already preparing to remove their shirts! Team 1 won this game.

After all the activities, it is time to end the day. We thank them, gave some word of advice and they again sang a Birthday Song to us. It was tiring, starting with the conceptualization, preparations and on the day event but it was all very much worth it. Seeing the smiles and hearing the sound of their laughter are priceless!

distribution of Loot Bags

In the end, like all the children’s party, we gave them loot bags that consist of the following:

  • Canned goods from Apple Abalos and Baby Ozato
  • Noodles from Michelle Abalos
  • Pansit Canton from Rheena Sison-Panser
  • 1 kilo of Rice from Celia Abalos
  • Pastel Buns from Dr. Viel Vincent Jose 
  • Toothpaste from NuffNang Team
  • Ballpens from Bryle Ian Bolong
  • Small bag from Ralph Alcantara
  • Candies and Sweets from Kcat Yarza and Valeri Ann Chua
We also added from the sponsored fund:
  • Biscuits and Cream Sandwiches
  • 1 Toothbrush
  • 1 Bar of Soap
  • 1 box of 24-piece crayon

These are all made possible with the help of our generous sponsors who extended their help and supported our little project.

Coe & Me with the kid’s sweet Thank you messages

I’m happy that we were able to do this this year. I’m hoping that next year would be a better one. We are just a bunch of people sharing our blessings to our brothers and sisters. We wanted to show them that life is indeed beautiful and worth living whatever situation we are in. We just have to look at the brighter side of things.

Birthday Project 2012: DBS Street Kids

“This is the key to life: To expect everything to be given to you from above, yet to be genuinely surprised and forever grateful, when they are. Expecting all good things to be yours, while not knowing how to take anything for granted. If there may be a key in life, this is the key.” ― C. JoyBell C.

Suppliers:
Venue – Don Bosco School Sta. Mesa, Manila
Food – Center for Culinary Arts Manila (CCA)
Food Carts – Ton O Fun 

Birthday Project 2012: Preparations 
Birthday Project 2012: Event Proper
Birthday Project 2012: Sponsors

You can also check Coe‘s blog post: Just Be  ^_^

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Birthday Project 2012: Preparations

As a prelude to my Birthday Project 2012 post, I decided to break it down for readability purposes not to mention my chance to stall the next write ups. Hahaha! Kidding aside, here’s the first part of our Birthday Project 2012 write up.

To start off, we’ve started planning mid September 2012 already. I know it’s a bit late for this kind of event we’re eyeing on but still we managed to stay calm and brainstorm what we want to achieve. If you’ve been following my blog, you already know that we had our birthday project in Grace to Be Born shelter last year. This year, we wanted something new and  a bit extravagant so we decided to host a party for less fortunate kids.

Initially, we just wanted to have 30 kids considering the budget we had last year. However, my conscience was pushing me to expand and stretch the number to 50 kids. It was a really difficult to decide especially that it’s our first time to do this. We do attend outreach programs but this is different since we will be the ones planning and executing everything. Nevertheless, we agreed. 50 kids, GO! Hahaha!

I communicated with Sr. Ailyn Cayanan, FMA of Don Bosco School Sta. Mesa to coordinate our plans. Since she said her approval, we started to do “the work”.

First things first… SPONSORS! We definitely need donations in Cash and In Kind so we formulated and discussed how to do about it. Of course our friends and relatives were the first ones in the list. Sharing it with friends of friends would be a bonus. With no time to spare, we started sending emails, posting e-cards, word of mouth, etc. Everything we can think of to extend our network and give them the opportunity to share.

Since then, positive responses and overwhelming generosity were seen considering a short time frame. I would enumerate who took part of our endeavor at the end part of my Birthday Project post. 🙂

Fast forward….

Coe & Kath at National Bookstore doing last minute shopping holding Thank You cards made by Nico Orillano

A day before the event, I decided to take a day’s off and start preparing for stuffs needed for the next day’s event. We bought additional stuff and eco bags for them. We’ve gathered all donations in kind and packed them together for the kid’s loot bags. The food and cart suppliers were also coordinated accordingly to be able to have a smooth sailing event.

Packing Time

It was a really a team effort that we stayed in one house just to prepare for the event. With this, I sincerely thank the Abalos’ family for welcoming us and helped us from the beginning up to the end of our project.

There were challenges encountered during the preparations but thankfully we all surpassed that and was able to execute what we had in mind.

Birthday Project 2012: Preparations 
Birthday Project 2012: Event Proper
Birthday Project 2012: Sponsors

You can check Coe’s blog post: Just Be since she already published her side of the story. ^_^

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Birthday Project 2012: Sponsors needed!

This would be the last week of September and would definitely extend the solicitation and donation request up until the 2nd week of October.

We are again asking for your kindness to be part of this project. Our initiative wouldn’t be possible and successful without your help.

Any kind of donation would be appreciated. A gift of presence and service is definitely okay. Just inform us ahead of time as I still need to coordinate transportation and food.

Here’s our e-card to be sent to friends via email:

 

Again, here’s how you can help us:

1. Cash Deposit via BPI or BDO

2. Paypal

3. In kind donation for the kid’s loot bags.

For In Kind donations, kindly prepare at least 50pcs of whatever it is you want to donate as we’re stretching our capacities and challenging ourselves to not only invite 30 street kids but accommodate up to 50 kids! It would be more fun and enjoyable seeing a lot of kids sharing and playing together.

Let’s all make this possible. Besides, it’s BER months already. You might want to give it to them not only as our birthday gift but a Christmas gift for them as well.

Thank you very much for your generosity.

God bless you kind hearts.

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