The extracurricular activity that I really want to highlight is the Charity Zoomathon that a small group of students and I planned in order to fundraise for people in Sri Lanka who were struggling during the pandemic, we teamed up with UNICEF so that we knew our funds were given to the right people and were used effectively, to help those in need. We were able to raise 720000 LKR through the zoomathon. We did this by creating a zoomathon that involved the school’s community where we used videos of teachers, students and alumni to raise awareness and help donate.

Proccess

To begin, we had to decide on roles for everyone in the class. There was 11 of us in the class, and we split into groups for our roles. Some people were in charge of communicating with sponsors and where to donate the money we collect, others were in charge of raising awareness and advertising the event and another group which was in charge of the tech behind the event. The other remaining group, which included me, was in charge of the planning of the event.

My first task was to take part in the planning committee for the zoomathon. This was an important role as none of us had the experience of executing an event of this scale, live online. We had to plan on the logistics of the zoomathon and brain stormed different ideas to make it an entertaining yet informative event. Understanding what mini-events needed to be used and made was the pinnacle of the planning process. Coming up with creative ideas was challenging but with many heads bringing on different ideas to the table, helped plan effectively.

After coming up with different ideas, I was in charge of making a video celebrating the graduating students and their experience at OSC. I had to make a script and had to plan out the video. I then made a list of peers that were willing to take part in the video where they read the script and shared kind words to the graduating to seniors. This was important to us as the graduating class of 2020 were not able to celebrate their graduation in school, thus making a video, would help commemorate their experience and moments in OSC.

 

The Zoomathon

We all woke up early that morning to do a final run-through. Again testing the stream, website and all for any issues. When it was time to begin all of the tech group left the Zoom call, the stream was set to go on YouTube, and it was time to begin. As an MC, we began to introduce the show, going through what to expect and also why we were doing this. They gave instructions on how to donate through the website and how to bid in the auction. Our school principal and head of school also came on to introduce the show. We then continued with the different events that followed after the introduction.

 

 

 

I am glad that I was able to be a part of the experience that was able to make this event a true success. The behind-the-scenes experience was able to show the importance of teamwork and the collaboration of ideas. I was able to appreciate the different ideas exchanged and help put some of them to function. Collaboration challenges people to think, articulate and receive clarity about their competencies. It serves as a mirror that gives them a glimpse of their strengths and weaknesses. Because two heads are better than one, our team, worked better together and plug each other’s gaps. When a variety of knowledge and skills are pooled, it creates a talent pool that is vast and more competent, able and experienced. No two people are the same, and when you have several peers from different backgrounds and cultures working together I was able to leverage those differences and identify how we can complement each other. This was my learning outcome through the thought process and planning,

With all of this gained from the experience of planning, executing it was the second most important part. The steps followed throughout the zoomathon was successful however, we did extend the zoomathon much longer than the predicted finish time. In the end, we were able to reach the target funds raised and even exceeded them. This is a prime example of what teamwork and collaboration can achieve and helped me understand its importance.