“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” –Winston Churchill
You’ve probably heard Winston Churchill’s name mentioned more times in your Histo class than you’ve heard of people talking about Celadon’s annual R.E.A.C.H. project, and it might be for some case that you’re scratching your head right now, wondering how come you’ve never heard of such thing in your first few months, or maybe even years of stay in this organization. Fret not, we gotchu fam!
R.E.A.C.H. (yes,it’s an acronym) stands for Responding to Encourage Action towards Care and Hope, and if that is too much to take in, we can boil it down to one word: Outreach. R.E.A.C.H. is a four-part outreach series that serves as a way for this organization to give back to the community the way Celadoneans know best—through sharing our culture. This project also allows the organization to grow as a family, extending this familial love towards other communities who needed it the most and form long term bonds with them.
This year, through the partnership with Gawad Kalinga Ateneo, the organization will cater to the kids of Pinag-Isang Palad Community in Commonwealth, and if you haven’t had that chance to give back and put a smile on those cute little children’s faces for once in your life, then our very own Dr. REACH suggests that you try to do so. However Dr. REACH wants to warn you about something: the kids will put a smile to your face first before you do on them!
Still iffy about REACH-ing (see what we did there) this one-of-a-kind-super-duper-awesome-times-one-million-to-the-infinity opportunity? Then maybe our very own super-duper-awesome member Ervin Llobrera’s experience during the last R.E.A.C.H. that might give you the insight that you need:
“Basically I heard about R.E.A.C.H. when our head of DocPub Joshua Cheng was asking for some volunteers to cover the event last school year, and I thought to myself, ‘Why not?’ since I was a scout officer back then in high school for a few years, and outreaches were part of that job in which I really enjoyed them. However, I was hesitant at first because I didn’t know who were going, and if there will be any transportation that would be provided for us.
“Later on I realized that everything is taken care of for the volunteers. In addition, I also tried inviting my friend along, and he agreed to go. Thus, I went to three out of the four sessions of R.E.A.C.H. to document the outreach, and the kids were really hyper and excited to greet us since they already knew the Celadon outreach team really well at that time. It was kind of tiring to handle the kids because they are all running around the place, but it was really fun and meaningful at the same time because you know that you’re bringing smiles to their faces with all the activities that has been prepared for them.”
Or maybe you really wanted reach out to others, but it’s just that you think outreach events are simply too tiring and boring? Don’t worry, because Celadon’s R.E.A.C.H. is filled with tons of fun, exciting, and value-adding culture-sharing activities that is not only fun for the kids, but to the volunteers as well.
Some of the highlights include: cooking tutorials, where the kids and adults of the community get to make a particular Chinese delicacy; Gawad Kalinga’s Christmas Carenival, a Christmas-party-like event filled with tons of games and activities; Chinese New Year Food Festival, where the community gets to taste some popular Chinese New Year dishes; and our culminating activity, filled with various educational workshops such as basic Chinese conversations, Chinese arts and crafts, and many more!
Not good with kids or don’t feel like interacting with them? Don’t worry, we still gotchu! REACH this year has also been structured differently from the previous years through the introduction of BUILDS, or basically community building sessions for the second and fourth sessions (simultaneous with the Carenival and the Culminating Activity). In our BUILD sessions, the volunteers can team up with the Gawad Kalinga volunteers in helping to build (literally) their community by building houses (passing the cinder blocks, shoveling), to painting sessions (painting the walls of a newly-built house), or maybe urban farming (planting trees around the community) to make the community greener!
Like they say, every outreach volunteer has the passion and the commitment to serve, all of them already branded as men and women for others. However, REACH is a project with Gawad Kalinga that gives back to our fellow community, with a commitment to serve that can only be done best by Celadon. A Celadonean volunteer serves with a familial sense and treats everyone like their family, no matter the cultural differences. It’s not being Chinese that makes us a Celadonean rather, it’s about sharing our common appreciation of the Chinese-Filipino culture to others. Our very own Ervin Llobrera here has already made his REACH story. How about you, what will your REACH story be?
Wanna be a core team member of REACH?
Sign-up here: bit.ly/CTAWave2
Deadline: Sunday, 11:59 p.m.
Start applying for the team now and REACH OUT with a socio-civic talk on Wednesday!
WHY WE REACH: A Socio-Civic Talk
September 21, 2016 | 5:00-6:30 p.m.
FAURA AVR
Sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/WhyWeReach
Want to know more about REACH? See more articles of the past ones:
Written by Christian Tiu, Colleen Gatchalian, and Himig Marcos.
Artwork by Jazel Khu.
