Here comes the last event of 2017 which was the The Extra Mile Program (TEMP) Christmas visitation on the 23rd of December 2017. It was held at the Good Samaritan Home in Klang and the reason TEMP organized this event towards the end of December was so that they could bring the joy of Christmas to the children of Good Samaritan Home. 20 kind-hearted students and 1 teacher advisor from Taylor's University School of Pharmacy volunteered themselves for this visitation to spend meaningful time with the children.
It is without doubt that Christmas is the warmest time of the year. Hence, TEMP decided to make this event resembled a pre-Christmas celebration for the children as TEMP's aim was to provide love and companionship to the children and make them feel belonged, cared and loved for the upcoming festive day.
The volunteers arrived at the destination around 2pm and the event started off with all the volunteers identifying their group members. They did this by distributing respective stickers with the children's name to the children. After that, everyone was required to introduce themselves and it was during this time that our volunteers took the opportunity to know more about the children as well as to break the ice between our volunteers and the children.
Ice-breaking session with the children :)
Introduce yourself so that we can know you better!
The ice breaking session was followed by a very interesting game where each group had to dress up a team member to become Santa Claus with newspapers! This was definitely a great and interesting session for the children as most of them were between the age of 5-17 years old. In this session, the biggest challenge for the volunteers was teamwork as most of the children are of very young age and they were often very playful.Therefore, patience and communication skills were of utmost importance to create a stronger bond with the children and our volunteers definitely did not disappoint. Not forgetting to mention, the children showed their creativeness throughout this session and most of them did exceptionally well!
Next, all the Santas were required to do a catwalk session and present their outfit. After that, the Organizing Chairperson of this event, Shannon Lip gave away a small gift to the most creative Santa.
Next, all the Santas were required to do a catwalk session and present their outfit. After that, the Organizing Chairperson of this event, Shannon Lip gave away a small gift to the most creative Santa.
Be creative so that we can win!
Santa Claus need moustache but you don't have
so I've to add it manually
The winner of the day- Most creative Santa Claus
Busy busy
The climax of the event was the Christmas songs sing-a-long session lead by Joyce and Yi Xian with a ukulele and a guitar respectively. The Christmas songs sung were Feliz Navidad, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. Our caring volunteers prepared the lyrics beforehand for the children so that they were able to follow the songs more easily. Meanwhile, as the children were happily singing, the volunteers distr ibuted a variety of sweets and wished the children 'Merry Christmas' with the hope that their world will be filled with warmth and good cheer during this Holy season.
The organizing chairperson, Shannon was leading
everyone to sing the Christmas songs
Yi Xian was playing guitar to make the atmosphere merrier
Feliz Navidad lyrics done by the volunteers
Lastly, Shannon distributed some inexpensive but precious gift to all the children and the visitation ended with a group photo of everyone including the founder of the Good Samaritan Home and warm hugs from the children.
Cheese :D
Thank you so much to the founder, Shannon, Yixian and
Michelle for giving us a memorable Christmas
In line with TEMP's vision, "Empowering Communities, Changing Lives", we will always try our best to contribute to the community. This visitation definitely amazed the students and made them more grateful and appreciative of life. It has successfully spread the support of love and affection to all the children. All of us sincerely hope that they will achieve great milestones in their life with the plentiful talent that they have. As for the students, they promised to continue to get themselves involved in more social activities in the future to help and spread love to those who are in need!
Written By
Ivy Jhing Ee
Editorial Board 2017/2018