The event of smiles – Bal mela

Bal Mela for 2015-16 was scheduled on Saturday, 13th February 2016.

For this event, we invite  underprivileged children each year from all walks of life and community to celebrate and enjoy different sports, art and games.This  event is an opportunity for us to provide space and resources for underprivileged children to enjoy the joys of childhood.

This event has been growing up with me since a few years now , and each year has been actively participating in the event as a volunteer, but this year when the school gave us an opportunity to coordinate the event and make it our baby , I was thrilled , but it getting the opportunity was not that easy.We had to go through a selection process (interviews). I was lucky enough to get selected along with 2 other friends.

To start off with we first went through previous documents of the event , to see how we could plan the event , and also determine the changes we needed to make  . After look at which we made a list of activities that we could conduct for the children , for this, we also asked for the opinion of our classmates so that we could come up with number of activities and make them as creative as possible so that they are fun and engaging for the children

The second step was to get volunteers, so that we have more innovative ways of getting the activity done and that we could arrange for resources and volunteers. Hence, we invited other students to collaborate with us and help us conduct the  event.In order to do so, we sent out google forms to the MY/DP students as well as the school staff. We decided to divide duties  amongst students and teachers in order to have a smooth functioning. We also divided activities into different departments and appointed department heads , which ensured that all works happen simultaneously and within the stipulated time.This is one area where ethics played a role as we had to ensure that our personal biases don’t affect the job distribution process and that roles are divided purely based on one’s potential .

However even when we had planned well in time and divided duties we faced crises one week prior to the event because many volunteers backed off and were no more willing to participate and we could not risk our event and hence we needed more volunteers which we then arranged for .

execution :

One the day of the event I had gone to school early with the support staff in order to check whether everything was well in place and all resources were there in spite  of the fact that I had checked all resource baskets a day prior to then event because I did not want to take any risk  with the event

Everything went on well but on the day of the event  many volunteers did not turn up , and hence we decide to cancel a few activities as we did not want to sacrifice on the quality of the event.Also, few activities were out of resources so I had to arrange for more resources  Also in one activity that is flex banner , we released that the flex banner was too small for so many children so then we had to arrange  for new flex to let them work on it and enjoy the activity. I also did interviews with students , teachers , and volunteers this were I had to ensure that I did no hurt anyone’s sentiments

The other ethical implications that we had to keep in mind were the quality of food, quality of activities , making sure that sentiments of students were no hurt  , and that each student got equal opportunities to enjoy the event. 

The event taught me that how simple things can lead to great smiles . Overall, i think it was a well organised and successful event.

What I take back from the event is that  Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own action .  witnessing  the  faces of 1456 children light up with joy and ecstasy which gave our event a reason for contentment. Happiness never decreases by being shared, said Buddha and this day proved the words of buddha true for me . Here is a glimpse from the day of smiles.