Zoomathon Covid19 CAS Project

During our web-based learning program in OSC, our Economics instructor and our Economics class chose to do so something to help individuals generally influenced by COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. We needed to coordinate a great method to gather donations from the OSC people group and provide for the individuals who required it most. Together, we chose to have a ‘Zoomathon’, an online show facilitated by Zoom.

This blog entry is about the entire cycle of getting sorted out and making this occasion, and how I helped and contributed during this cycle.

Process

The process of planning something of this scale was something that required many many hours of work.  My first goal was to find a suitable organization to give the money we collect during the fundraisers, we looked at a variety of different organizations such as Uniceif, WHO, and some local ones as well. We eventually settled with Uniceif because we had some personal connections and we could communicate well with them. Our next course of action was to start planning videos and getting guest interviews and alumni and teachers who have left. We decided to get videos from the community as this would show that the community helped achieved what we wanted to achieve “we” did it together. During a time where morale was down and the world was in a very sad state. Trying to bring that moral up was a very good idea. On average we did a zoom call every week during the first month of planning and as we got closer, we called almost twice a week to make sure everything was in place. In the picture above you can see how one of our zoom calls would look like, we are all listening and give ideas on how to make the zoom call as effective as possible. Another Task that I was appointed to was getting sponsors for this Zoomathon. I personally got 2 sponsors for this zoomathon, 1 including a 3-night free stay at a Mahaweli Hotel for the silent auction and a free Dinner with Kumar Sangakara (Famous Cricketer) at the Ministry of Crab. These Silent auction bids were the most successful during these silent bids.

After getting the sponsors I was tasked with creating a “Some Good news by John Krasinsky” parody for our school and also getting Alumni and Teachers who have left our school. In total, I managed to get around 10 Alumni videos, which included students who graduated from the year 2014-2019. All these students had inspiring words to say that helped us get more donations. Moreover, the teacher videos were even more successful because many of the teachers were loved by our students and this really brought back the nostalgia and really brought the school together to see our old teachers and friends.

one final task I was tasked with was getting video from the community, we sent out a google form to the entire school to ask them what talents and cool trick they were willing t

o share with the OSC community and we got a huge huge amount of people who were willing to share their talents on the stream. It really showed how awesome of a community that OSC has and what it can do during a time of need.

Website + Advertising the Zoom 

Our next course of action was to start the advertising for this event we decided to do that through social media and through a website made with the help of the Gecko Net. The website included a brief description of what we are doing and all the links to donate, watch it live, and the silent auction. We also created a Poster which we could post all around social media. Which you can see below.

The Zoomathon

We all got up early that morning to make a final sprint. Check the stream again the website and everything for any problems. When it was time to start all the tech community left the Zoom call, the stream was set to go to YouTube, and it was time to get started. The MC started by introducing the show going over what to expect, and also why we did this. They gave guidance on how to donate via the website and how to bid at the auction. Our goal for this Zoomathon was to raise over 500,000Lkr

We began with a funny introduction from our head of School and then went onto a wake-up workout hosted by the P.E teachers in our school 

Here are some highlights from the stream

The show kept running, we were very delayed, and in the end we ran for around 4 and a half hours but that was all right, because we were able to play all the videos we needed and all the contributions were played. To make sure that everyone got their recognition We received 617,000 rupees worth of donations at the end of the stream, and then we raised nearly 750,000 rupees for UNICEF, including the auction in total, way beyond our target!

Problem encountered 

During the zoomathon, we encountered many problems such as donations not going through because of a simple error in the type the amount as well as people donating for example 1000000000 to mess with the sidebar. This was an issue that we had to fix on the fly by only allowing only set amounts to be allowed to donate such as 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, etc. as well as asking on stream if people could kindly stop donating an outlandish amount of money. this luckily worked and allowed for the stream to go on.

Conclusion

At the end of the day I would just like to personally thank every single one of the people who watched, took part in and was part of the planning process of this zoomathon, it took us a lot of time and effort to make sure that it worked out, some times during that month we thought we werent going to make it but we did we pushed through and we did. Id just like to Thank Mr. Rossberg, Mathisha, Rizqi and Anuda as us 5 I believe were the back bone to this operation calling for upwards of 5 hours in a day to make sure we had everything in place. So Once again Thank you to the OSC Community <3

Taking everything into account, the whole cycle of getting sorted out this occasion was exceptionally testing, yet in the end, it was remunerating to see the entirety of our diligent effort pay off, realizing we had an effect with the donation to UNICEF. I unquestionably have taken in numerous aptitudes from chipping away at this task, and am exceptionally glad that I did as such.

Learning Outcomes.

1. Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth, and; Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Starting with the strengths I’ve found in this phase, I realized that being part of a large project like this with a lot of people willing to do stuff will make these projects really successful, and if I do what I’ve been told and what I’ve been assigned to do and if everyone did the same thing, then everything will be great. This is precisely what happened during our process of coordinating this, and it has shown me that I’ve shown personal growth.

3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

The demonstration of my initiation and planning of a CAS project is the fact that I was very much a part of initiating and planning the development of this case, from the first call to determine that we were doing this to separating our roles and planning the website and much more.

4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

By doing all of my tasks and fulfilling the needs of my role, I showed dedication and perseverance. I was ready for any problems that arose and we resolved all the issues together with my team. We knew that planning this event in just a month would be a daunting challenge, but everyone in the community showed determination and perseverance, which is what made this event so popular.

5. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

The Coronavirus is presumably one of the most internationally critical issues this year, and by getting sorted out this whole zoomathon finished shows our commitment to engagement with a global issue