On the 25th of August, a bunch of my friends and I went out to bring a group of children from an orphanage - Agathians Shelter for an outing to MidValley Megamall to cheer up their spirits during the school holidays. We have some funds from a fundraising project done earlier in the year. So we thought a good way to spend the funds would be to bring a group of orphans out, treat them for lunch at McDonald’s and movies and then get them new books and stationaries at the local bookstore.

It started out at about 12 where I went over to Seira’s place and picked her up before heading to the orphanage home near Seksyen 8, PJ. We met up with the kids, caretakers and volunteers there and then headed to MidValley in my car and in another van. A total of 22 kids followed us with a few more volunteer adults.

We reached MidValley and went straight for lunch at McDonald’s. We were duly joined by Cassie, a friend from my Leo Club days and later on Clement and another friend of his. We organised the kids into tables at McD. A waiter at McD helped us take orders from the kids at McD and they are clearly delighted at being able to choose their meals then. Luckily it was the fasting season and we could get seats for nearly 30 of us. I used to work at MidValley and I know that McD is packed to the brim during normal lunch hours.

Well talking about luck, actually I did not pay for the McD lunch. After organising the kids at the tables in McD, a group of women in their 40s who were siting behind me started talking to me. There were curious why there were so many kids out in McD being organised together thus started asking me some questions. I explained our outing and she offered to pay for the meal at McD. What a nice gesture.

Also at McD, Seira was nice to help us get some vegetarian pizzas for the vegetarians. At the same time, Cassie who finished her meal early went to check the movie listings and helped coordinate the movie ticket purchases.

We finished eating at 2 plus and proceeded to the movie theatre for the cartoon movie UP which starts at 2.30. Talk about perfect timing and coordination! LOL. But it has all to do with good luck and help from experienced friends!

After movies, we brought the kids to MPH to buy them new stationaries and books. At this moment we were joined by Adila, which I then found out was a Seira’s classmate in secondary school! The kids were happy choosing their brand new stuff. They were practically running around the bookshop choosing their new freebies. Once everyone has gotten their new goodies, we proceeded to the cashier and paid. I had to vet through the stuff they want to buy while Seira kept touch with a handphone calculator to ensure that we do not go overbudget.

The kids were clearly happy with their outing that day, getting new books and stationaries. Hopefully this will inspire them to work hard in their studies and achieve success. After MPH, we proceeded back to the orphanage and hang out with the kids for a little longer. By then it was already 7 plus and we decided to call it a day.

It was a rather interesting outing. I am glad the kids had a great day out during their school holidays choosing new stuff for their studies. I know so many of them being so grateful for having new stationaries for their UPSR exams, things which we all have taken for granted. Well I hope I would be able to do this again. What this outing actually taught me was it is really actually quite simple to organise an outing with an orphanage. And it is ridiculously affordable to bring 22 kids out for a lunch at McD and a movie outing. All it takes is the initiative and the cooperation of a few friends. I shall do this more often in the future!

And talking about it, I guess I should have gotten involved in a more long term project with an orphanage like giving them some sort of tuition of sort earlier in the year.

Anyway, there were some additional funds from the outing the other day. I have donated the additional funds to Yvonne Foong. You can go google her and read all about her plight and battle against a rare form of cancer. I thought hers is a deserving cause and I am proud of her battle against this disease that had affected her for so long. I am also proud of her use of the online media to fundraise money and I think you should all support her too.

Finally, here’s some photos that I took from the outing with the kids the other day. Have fun!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 11:53 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.