On Jun 20, the second Celestial Charity Fair happened at Novotown in Zhuhai. It was a fair organized by myself and some friends at my new school. This was my first time organizing the fair. However, my first ever experience in organizing charity fairs was back in second grade, and this was my journey.
I was part of the student council back in second grade, and we were looking for ways to donate to charity within the school unit. Back at Beijing City International School (BCIS), the awareness of donation and helping others in need was spread throughout every corner of the school, and of course, when I was in student council, it was one of the main targets for our work. I remember so clearly that I simply talked to some of my friends in my homeroom class, asking them if they were up for the work, and after I got myself a team of three or four people, I went to Walmart (back when Walmart still had a store in Beijing) with my mom that evening to pick up some snacks and drinks to sell at the event. I had someone on my team make a poster for it, spread the word around the grade, and I even was smart enough to think that some people might forget to bring money to pay for the things they’d buy, so I made a chart to record their names, grade, and homeroom class so that I could keep track and hunt them down the next day. It was towards the end of the school year when we organized the fair (literally one day before the end of the school year, to be exact), so we were in a big rush, but we still successfully raised a few hundred RMB for the charity Help a Child Smile, and I was very satisfied.
The last day of school was a half day, and Grade 2 had a picnic on the hill of the playground. Even though I did hunt down the people who did not pay the day before at the event, they still had forgotten to bring cash, so I made them give me a few of their snacks they brought to the picnic as a form of trade. As I recall this event right now in eighth grade, I feel extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to host this event and raise that amount of money in just one lunch break, with so many people running towards that bench that wrapped around the gingko tree because they were so excited about the fact that they could buy snacks. Even though I did not make any money from that experience, it set me up for hosting a similar event again in third grade.
I hosted a similar event again in third grade, at the same location, with a few more people on the team, and perhaps the lesson learned was that I have to make people pay or else there will be less money raised. I remember making over a thousand RMB in third grade from the charity event, and we donated to the same charity that year. Some people in the grade were impressed by the team’s organization. No teacher was really involved in the process, and no teacher even complimented us for our efforts, but they only looked at us in suspicion, thinking that all of this might not have been true. My journey of holding charity events was put on hold until I came to my current school in Zhuhai.
My friend Brian, who is currently in ninth grade, is the founder of the Celestial Charity Fair, and he first held this event at school last year when he was in eighth grade.
This year, the revenue from the event not only helped the homeless dogs in Guangdong, part of the money also went to the Guangdong Lions Club’s Sea of Stars team, which is an organization that helps children with autism and their families. Organizing the event with Brian this year was a very different experience to what I did in second and third grade.
Before, I had bought my own products to sell, but here we had vendors from both in school and out of school come to the fair to sell their own goods. Thus, we faced issues with not having enough vendors, not being able to find a sponsor, and also not being able to get enough prizes for the lucky draw (even though we ended up with perhaps a few too many prizes, to the point where some people were numb to some of them at the end). My sustainable fashion brand Eco Apparel sponsored seven discount vouchers in the lucky draw, in hopes of more people being interested in the brand. I found out that once we got more parties and different people in the team, we were able to gain so many more diverse aspects into the event, which made it a lot more fun for customers. For example, one parent from the PTA even got three horses to come to the event so that people could experience what horse-riding was like. Another teacher got an Italian bakery to attend, and their pizzas and breads were delicious. Brian, being a music enthusiast, got his band to perform at the event. So, having a team is definitely more effective than trying to handle everything by yourself.
After experiencing how organizing an event is like on different scales, I of course, will not be stopping there – hosting a MUN conference is also on my to-do list for this year, so let us look forward to that, shall we?
Spending so much time on and putting so much effort into something that you may not seem to directly benefit from may seem like a “waste” to you – but it is important for kids to know that when they are fortunate enough to be able to have a shelter, water, food and education, it becomes their duty as humans to give back and to let the differences caused by injustice be eliminated as much as possible. If we are able, others should be able as well. If your child wants to host a charity fair in their community or school, they can find a charity to collaborate with from their school, or Roundabout (they sometimes put their donation boxes in schools if they are a collaborator, so you can inquire if your school is a connected school). Help a Child Smile is also a charity that a lot of schools have connections with in Beijing. Those two charities are both focused on helping underprivileged children, and if you have another cause that you want to help, you can always donate to them through their website or online platforms.
Images: Margaret Yang
