The Grand Finale! Our ParaSports Challenge!
The children and families who signed up for this challenge reached as early as 8.30am.
In fact, weeks before - our teams were also practising hard for their group cheers!
The children invited Uncle Kalai and Kakak Aini and were delighted when they arrived! Their flight back from a competition was delayed and yet they made sure they turned up so as not to disappoint the children.
We also had the honour of having Ms Cheng Li Hui (MP for Tampines GRC) join us in this event.
There were a total of 4 teams. However, as it was the flu season - some had to miss this event. However, they kept abreast of the happenings via the chat groups that our PSG team leaders had with them.
The first challenge was the tennis ball challenge.
The children and their families had fun and we could see that the adrenalin was pumped up. We could see that the children thoroughly enjoyed the game and laughed even when they had difficulties getting the ball into the box. One or two burst into tears as we reached the last leg. However, after some consolation, they quickly picked themselves up to continue the next challenge. It was a good experience for all. Learning to cope with losing is a real life experience that each and every of us need to have in our lives…
The second challenge was the Sitting Volleyball Challenge.
The importance of teamwork and counting on one another’s strengths was manifested in this challenge. We could see that the teams put in a lot of effort in working together to keep the ball off their court.
The third challenge was the ‘we can transfer’ challenge.
This challenge helped us realise that we need to use our wits when ‘helping’ others. The person who was being transferred needed to trust that he/she will not be ‘dropped’. The children enjoyed this and some parents also lay down on the ropes to be transferred.
The fourth challenge was having the individual teams perform a cheerleading routine and each team had to ‘showcase’ individuals with a physical challenge and how they cheer them on.
All team members voted their favourite cheer and Green Team emerged champion for this category.
The event was successful and everyone had fun while doing our part for our nominated beneficiary ‘Singapore National Paralympic Council’.
We also took this opportunity to present the cheque to the representative, Ms Juliana Fadilah Sahaimi, for National Council of Social Service. We nominated Singapore National Paralympic Council as our beneficiary and Mr Kevin Wong, Chairman of SNPC was also present to receive the cheque.
Our 148 children, our alumni and families had raised an ASTOUNDING TOTAL of $10,188.70!
Initially, part of this donation was meant to get items to be put into the goodie bags for the participants. However, the children wrote to several organizations and received sponsored items thus the entire sum was rechannelled back to the President’s Challenge.
We are very proud of the children and as some of them candidly announced during the event,
“We learn that we must always try and try again”
“We must never give up”
“If people say bad things about us, we should not cry and still do our best”
And yes, we are all the same but still pretty much different in our own ways!
Let us continue to have empathy and instill in our lil’ ones to be able to see that each and every one of us is special and unique in our own ways!
Inclusivity is not only all about others but about ourselves too!
Cheers! From All of Us @ 261!
