CAS Over the Year

I have participated in several activites this year, that have engaged me in their own ways, and have also managed to excite me enough to pursue them fully.

For sports, SAISA Basketball and making the varsity team was a huge achievement and task accomplished this year, that I wholly enjoyed. I will always remember every moment of it, from the nervousness about making the team, to the grinding practice sessions, to our TWO trips to New Delhi and MUCH, much more. Next year, only four us will still be here, but we still hope to put together a competitive team, which should be helped with the completion of our new gym.
Tennis, which I have struggled to find time for consistently this term, is also a priority for me. I aim to very consistently attend sessions over the summer and become a better player.

I have been involved in two service activites this year, Cancer Hospital and the Alzeihmers Elective. Visiting the cancer hospital has definetly taught me a lot about how privelged I am and the great need for people like me to help the less fortunate improve their lives.
Taking on the leadership of the Alzeihmers elective this semester has uptil now actually been a fun and very helpful experience. I have seen the need to be creative when you are in charge as well as being organised enough to carry out the tasks. Next year, I hope to strengthen our group making sure that it proves to be healthy choice as elective for everyone as well as continuing to help spread awareness about alzeihmers and raise funds.

In terms of creativity, I did participate in MUN this year, yet only as an administrator. Through this I did learn a lot about the intricacies of the U.N. and being a diplomat, yet I know did not get the utmost out of this event, having not been a delegate. Next year, possibly, I might choose to do more in terms of organising the event, which I observed to be a highly challenging task, having recognised some things that I could do to make it a better experience for everyone.

Cancer Hospital

Our last visit for the year. Since we have funds to refurbish the kids play area, on our last visit, we participated in some strenous physical work. By this I mean packing everything in the room (toys, books, stationary, small furniture) into boxes. We then had to move the heavy boxes out of the area. Working as a group we managed to get the place emptied in just under an hour.

For me it did not feel like we had been coming here for a whole year, time does fly by. I think coming here over the year has been a seriously good experience in terms of meeting people so completely different from you, quite underpriveleged, and helping to brighten up their daily lives, which I have seen that we actually do with our visits. I will try to continue this service in senior year, hopefully not being too pinned down by work.
(me in the center with blue shirt, grey shorts)

Alzeihmers - Presentation to School

Over the past few weeks the some students have worked on researching articles on alzeihmers and making awareness posters, to put up around school. Others worked on posters that gave information about what we have done as a group i.e. visiting homes etc.

As for me and seong (my fellow leader) we were tasked with making a presentation about our activities to the secondary school during assembly. As such, we made a quick five minute presentation (that was all they gave us!).

Cancer Hospital

We have consistenstly been visiting the hospital this quarter without many interuptions. We mostly go to the kids playroom and either help clean it up or simply play with the kids. It has been quite a fun experience for this year, just watching the kids draw some pretty eye-catching sketches or playing cricket with the more active ones.

Alzeihmers - Food & Fun Fair

Our first event carried out as leaders was setting up a stall at the Food & Fun Fair. Initially, we planned to have a 'sweet stall' i.e. selling ice cream floats, ice cream, candyfloss in addition to drinks. To do this we required that each member bring a box of ice cream and we had to talk to the PTA as well as our principal to set up the stall.

As the event progressed, however, we saw that most people were not that interested in the 'candy' but were flocking toward the cool soft drinks we also had, being a hot day. Our limited drink supplies simply began to fly off. As a result, my fellow leader had to go to the supermarket in a hurry to gat some more drinks. Astonishingly, the 6 extra 1 litre bottles we baught literally disappeared in a matter of minutes. By this time we had no extra cash to buy bottles, so we decided to take a gamble and use some of the cash we had earned already, despite us knowing we only had around 45 minutes to go. This time, however, we increased our prices by 50-75rps from 25-50rps (small and big cups). Some customers did question our prices but nevertheless we sold those extra 6 bottles at whopping speed and more than doubled the profit. In fact, I remember some of us (annonymous :) charging upto 100rps for small cups of soda. It was certainly a fantastic experience for me in the serious power a producer has as a result of price inelastic demand!

By the end of the event, we had managed to raise a fantastic 8,800rps simply by selling soft drinks for a few hours! We hope to use the money later on next year in buying medicines for the people at the homes.

(me in blue)

TENNIS!

My tennis lessons (private) have been going on rather sporadically over the last few weeks. The purpose of these lessons is to make sure that I don't lose practice at the game and ofcourse to improve.
This improvement has also happened, with me learning a new grip for my backhand, and quite surprisingly I found that after years of having a rather undependable backhand, it was now much stronger and controlled... something that made me especially happy.

Me (in blue) and my fellow leader (in pink)

With us finishing MUN and several seniors who lead activities wanting more time before their exams, me and a friend of mine became the leader's for the Alzeihmer's elective. It was initiated this year by a couple of seniors who wanted to help the Sri Lanka Alzeihmer foundation as well as make students more aware of the problems associated with alzeihmers disease.

To help us get accustomed to the what our task would be, the two seniors invited us to a field trip they were going on to visit a home for alzeihmer patients, sponsored by the SL Alzeihmer foundation. Unlike all other service activities at OSC, this one does not work with kids, but rather senior citizens. This required a changed mindset for me, especially since I have been quite involved with the kids at Cancer Hospital. Eventually, however, we simply had small chats with the elderly group (marvelling at their own almost childlike enthusiasm to meet us) culminating with some sing-alongs.

Watching how our two leaders got the group of 7-10 grader's together to make proper use of the time, I was quite impressed and I know what will be expected of me as leader.