RAAY Christmas Carnival
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by
admin
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, hey
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Christmas brings in along with it the chilly winter, jazzy decoration of the x-mas tree, plum cake, and jingles! A phone call from ConnectFor- our volunteering platform for a collaborative Carnival celebration at our RAAY Center for special needs was such a delightful idea.
We immediately pulled up our socks(pun intended) and got to planning the big bash. At RAAY Center for special needs, our motivation has been to give our children(a mixed batch of Autism Spectrum, Cerebral Palsy, Learning Disorder, Hearing & Vision impaired) to give an as diverse cultural experience as possible. Festival celebration instilled a sense of bonding, exchange, and social education in our children making it an out-of-classroom learning experience for them.
The event planning began with the ConnectFor Team Member, visiting our center and chalking out the details for the bash. Upon finalizing the details, an alert was shared with the interested volunteers who desired to help out at the event. The volunteers were a group of diverse working professionals keen and enthusiastic to spend quality time with our kiddos. Their dedication to understanding differently-abled children and their challenges was impressive as well as heartwarming.
The furor began with decorating our premises with colorful, glittery cut-outs, some shaped like snow-flakes, others like pine-branches! This is the part that the team enjoys thoroughly, it brings out the child in each of us. It quickly transcended into setting up interesting games for the children, ‘Pin the nose of Rudolph’, ‘reciting Christmas Carols’, ’Pinata explosion’, ‘Throw the ring’,’3 cups & a ball’ and ‘Design your own cupcake’. The adults wanted to try their hand at the games too. Finally, Ho! Ho! Ho! The star of the event arrived with his bell and his big white beard. The children gathered around their favorite Santa and were overjoyed with their Christmas gifts.
We wrapped up this crazy carnival party with some delicious snacks and a huge group photo. We parted with a smile on our face and festive cheer in our hearts.