Me and My friends, recently held a Holi Celebration Party/ Fundraiser which was initially intended to gather funds for an orphanage that was near one of our collaborator’s house, but we realised that the orphanage had a been funded already and the COVID-19 issue that escalated a lot so we decided to give off all our funds to the government that are helping the people in need right now. We arranged a party with colours, food and drinks for all. It was a great learning experience and we were happy with our little contribution to the society.

LO 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

• My strength was talking to the people that were collaborating with us, I was really good with organising the tasks to every single colleague that I was working with. Moreover, I was also able to fluently and confidently talk to the shop owners that were been used for the food and the colors. Lastly, My strength was that I was able to complete the task on time and was able to make people finish their tasks if they needed help.
• My weakness was that initially, I was a little dull about the idea, I am able to talk to people and make things work out once I am convinced with the idea, I was thinking in very negative way and wasn’t able to contribute on the first and the second day of preparations. I realised my problem/weakness and started working upon it, I sat down and brainstormed wonderful ideas that could make our Holi Celebration work, that helped and then after that day I was really very enthusiastic and contributed to every single part of the preparation and set up.

LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

• I was not able to give a lot to my group at the start of my CAS project. I was constantly, busy and hadn’t had contributed a single thing with the colleagues, they used to have chats and meetings for the preparations and I wasn’t a part of it. The biggest challenge here I faced was of coping up with the team members. Moreover, whenever I took up work I was on time, but was very distracted, I use to start chit-chatting with my friends or start surfing the internet. That wasn’t helping me grow and for the short-term helping me commit myself to the group. So on this journey I learnt how to be dedicated and how to work with focus and determination. Lastly, I had a lot of trouble finding good and authentic places from where we could get colours or food, drinks etc. and my friends knew it all, that was a little challenging for me, but I really coped up by doing a little search on the internet.

LO 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

• Our team decided to organise the work that had to be done so that we could achieve more in less time. We started out, with promoting the our Holi Celebration idea in our school, we decided to start with Whatsapp group and a verbal communication strategy to promote. Furthermore, we went down a lot of different places and tried food items that were going to give to people on the day of the celebration and listed down all the good places and checked off places so that we could have a better understanding. Lastly, we went to the place where we were going to execute our part and did a trial set up run so that we were not in any trouble on the day of the party. I personally thought that the plan we had made was perfectly thought, I felt that if we had not done the way we did the planning, we would have ended up having fights and trouble on the day of the party and before as well.

LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

• Even though I enjoyed doing this activity, there were times when I didn’t want to conduct further sessions. This was due to lack of motivation, however, my teammates kept reminding me that we were doing this for a good cause. I really tired of going out every day and talking to people about the food and other drinks and renting the place, but I was really very happy after completing the meetings and follow-ups that we did and I was really very happy after doing it.

LO 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

• Teamwork proved out to be really very essential when we were preparing for the Holi Fundraiser. If I was the only one doing this, I would have had a lot of pressure on myself, I would have had to do, about the colours, food, drinks, place to execute and all of this requires a lot of patience and will power because we were 5 people working together, it had become a bliss there wasn’t any pressure on any one of the members and we were really very happy working together. Lastly, we had to talk to a lot of people and one person doing that was not feasible. Teamwork proved out to be really helpful.

LO 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

• COVID-19 was really a immense problem in the world, especially in India. India has been facing poverty forever due the lockdown and COVID-19 the labourers and the people who are below poverty line have been facing a crisis of economy, mental stability and haven’t been able to work. After the collection that we made we donated all that to the charity fund that was being held by the government of India.

LO 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

• There were a lot of times when there were issues with the calculation of money we could have easily manipulated the numbers and would have shown our fundraiser to be really successful, but we did not, we practised the academic honesty and did not manipulate the number but showed the real numbers and yet we were successful.

I had a lot of fun and learning opportunities with this project and the learner profile attributes we practiced were thinker and inquirer.

Donation To PMCARES: