The economics class of 2021 organized an online fundraiser in partnership with UNICEF to raise awareness and funds for school children around Sri Lanka that have been affected by COVID. Our economics teacher, Mr. Rossberg, at the time supported us through all of this, and more importantly suggested the idea of it. We quickly found interest in this idea, and felt as if even though we were staying home and doing online classes all day, it would be an interesting way to help out the community we live in at the same time. It took a lot of dedication, a lot of meetings and collaboration but we were finally able to organize an amazing morning full of activities that people were able to live stream from home!

We each had important roles that we had to stick to in order to organize the zoomathon. I was one of the MCs on the day of the zoomathon, therefore my role along with 3 other peers from my economics class was to write out scripts and plan 4 hours of events back to back. It was definitely challenging to collaborate and plan over zoom, as wifi would sometimes be an issue, or sounds something may not work… It was overall something that I have learnt from, as it has taught me definitely about patience, organization and most importantly collaboration. No matter the struggle we went through, it would be worth it in the end.

The OSC community was able to raise over 500000 LKR, which was a huge amount of money. We also included auctions that were being sold such as lunch with a famous cricketer or discounts at hotels. The final zoomathon day was the 9th of June, and it turned out to be a great success. This event helped me connect with and help with a global issue that has impacted the entire world, still to this day, which is one of the learning outcomes.

This screenshot comes from a mid-point of the zoomathon, where one of the events was raising extra money to have someone shave their head. This turned out great, and was definitely entertaining for everyone. We had two brave volunteers that shaved their heads, and our goal as MCs was to direct a conversation together and keep entertaining our audience. It was great to see the OSC community take part in something altogether over quarantine as it was challenging to lose contact with teachers or friends. Other events during the zoomathon included teachers showing off their talents, students sending videos of trick shots, which all brought joy and entertainment to the event.

Overall, this experience has helped me realize how much everyone in the world is directly impacted by Covid-19. It opened up a place for everyone to give back to their community and realize how important and serious this global pandemic had gotten.