YMCA Children’s Christmas Community Celebration
4 Dec 2011 (Sun) @ YMCA Brickfields
EXCERPT
Boardgamekids were at YMCA’s Children Christmas Community Celebration to host the boardgame sessions for orphaned children from selected homes! No sales, no event fees, no promotion. Just giving our time freely for this underprivileged children.
A Busy December
December is really looking to be a packed month for us in terms of boardgame events. After concluding three Settlers of Catan qualifiers back-to-back, the team did not rest on Sunday and in fact spent the afternoon delivering joys of boardgaming to a bunch of children at the Children’s Christmas Community Celebration organized by YMCA.
“This year, YMCA KL will be celebrating Christmas with orphaned children from selected homes in Klang Valley. Share the true meaning of Christmas with a child.”
The event is held at their LEE KONG CHIAN Hall and has a full programme all lined up for the afternoon. Blessed the children!
Waiyan has always been involved with the YMCA on some other activities and thru that connection, she was asked if Boardgamekids (BGK) can consider hosting the boardgame section of the Games Stall.
It has been some time since BGK last hosted an event at an orphanage (well, we do have the occassional short visit to orphanages but on a larger scale, the last one we did was Sunbeam a couple years back). So why not?
Waiyan & Wong already had a short session yesterday demo-ing the boardgames to some of the YMCA facilitators as they’ll be helping us out during the game stall sessions. They were expecting children from 6 orphanages so the numbers would be larger than what waiyan and wong can cope on their own.
Wong’s (above) always a fave with the children…
Some of the boardgames we brought along for this event.
Beside the Boardgame Stalls, there were other game stalls lined up for the children’s variety. Never a dull moment for them…
Golf anyone?
I dun think he was *that* convinced as he walked away and decided not to try the “shock” treatment. 😛
Someone was creative enough to draw this “signboard” for us… thanks!
Some of the very helpful young facilitators…
Lollipop anyone?
Yes.. He seems very happy with his lollipop… hehe. No, not the child above but that gentleman in the picture below. LOL
This gentleman’s from IBM and they have a community project named Project EPIC.
Most of the children seems to come from Tri-Ratana homes.
This kid (below) was looking at me taking pictures so I decided to take a few snaps of him, and then showed him the preview pics via the camera’s LCD. He was so happy seeing his own face, he kissed the LCD! Cute…
You can’t have a Christmas gathering without the Santarinas, right? 😉
The game sessions only lasted an hour, and the children were gathered by the Santarinas as they’ve some performances prepared to entertain the children…
Hip hop and breakdance wor?
Followed by some singing by the YMCA Youth
He’s obviously enjoying the showtimes…
… while this little one hasn’t quite make up his mind yet.
… and then he decided to stand up and tried to address the audience. Future politican material, I think. Ada potensi. 😛
Kudos to YMCA for organizing this event which I’m sure brought lots of happy faces to the children…
One for the album!
A note of appreciation to waiyan and wong for tirelessly carrying out such community service under the Boardgamekids banner. It’s a constant reminder to us where our true north lies.
Why do we do this?
We are often asked this question. Where’s the money in this ar?
From a business point, it’s true there’s no money. Spending time doing all this won’t make sense. You spent a couple of hours, and it doesn’t help towards covering your overheads.
But the boardgamecafe business (to us) is not just about milking profits. It’s about reaching out to the community and sharing; whether it’s about sharing a boardgame session with the children or just simply sharing an hour of your time with them. To us it’s just an hour. To them, it could be a memory to cherish.
May everyone have a Merry Christmas and remember to share the joys of Christmas & Boardgaming with children and loved ones.
Boardgamekids signing off… ta da.
For more pictures of this event, pls visit your Facebook photo album
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