This past semester has been overall quite successful for my service group Care For Paws. Rashmi and I have been  service leaders for this service since tenth grade, making this our second year. We began this semester with a whole new set of members. This made collaboration, communication and patience very important as we had to introduce them to our goals as a service group. With each new person came new ideas and we were able to plan events for the entire school year as they are all driven and passionate members.

This semester we planned and initiated four main events, the first being the anti-animal tourism pledge. We stepped outside and researched into important global issues surrounding animal rights, it was a bold move but it was the right thing to do. To learn more about that day please refer to this link ( https://dsamayawardhena20.edublogs.org/2018/10/08/october-4th-animal-awareness-day/ ). We also planned an animal rights day awareness day in sync with the anti-animal tourism pledge, to really involve our community with the global issues we are attempting to overcome to bring awareness to this ethical issue in Sri Lanka. We had to critically think outside of the box to really make these issues stand out and a train of thought in our school community. To learn more about that day please refer to this link (https://dsamayawardhena20.edublogs.org/2018/10/08/october-4th-animal-awareness-day/ ). Home run focused on engaging our community more with our service as we normally don’t open up our events to parents and students. To learn more about the event please refer to this link (https://dsamayawardhena20.edublogs.org/2018/11/19/home-run-2018/ ). The biggest success of the semester was our Christmas cooke bake sale. We earned over 50,000 lkr which left us at a safe place to plan our annual sterilization and vaccination camp. I was able to think creatively with my co leader Rashmi and come up with a list of cookies and packages to provide. To learn more about this event please refer to this link (https://dsamayawardhena20.edublogs.org/2018/12/27/pre-order-christmas-bake-sale/ ).

Rashmi was a very supportive and helpful co leader, who was always there to support me when our group was going through a rough time to keep us on track. Each lesson worked together to plan the sessions and delegate work to each member so that they can all get as involved as possible. All the collaborative skills made each of the events run smoothly as everyone did their part to make make them possible. Planning these events were not easy, but through preserving and passion anything it possible.

One of the most challenging yet rewarding projects I initiated and worked on  for service was the creation of the service website. I worked on it all throughout December to January, I transferred skills I learnt from about four to five years ago to make it possible. I critically thought about what more our service needed to flourish, evolve and branch out. It was a difficult task I took on, but through perseverance and passion I was able to complete the project. This allows our service to get more involved in global issues as people from outside the school community can communicate with us to collaborate and initiate projects.

We were fortunate enough to gain a donation of 50,000 lkr from a visitor of our dear teacher Mr. Rossberg. This left us in a great place to move forward to the next semester. All the hard work and dedication made this semester a successful one, and I hope to see the same energy and drivenness for each of the members!