At exactly a year ago today, my high school batch mates in St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur in Vigan had our first ever outreach program cum reunion.
Me and my high school friends formed the group P.A.U.L.S. (Paulinians Active and United in Love and Service) :We had created our FB page to reach out to our batch mates. .It was not easy for us to organize because we are all miles apart from each other and the different time zones, like 2 of us are in the Philippines, 1 in Miami, 1 in UK and the other is in Italy but thanks to FB and YM, we can reach each other and some of us had to sacrifice.. There were times that we don't want to push through with it anymore because of some issues involving some of our batch mates but the encouragement from the majority made us succeed. We asked donations from our former schoolmates especially those who are working abroad Luckily we raised enough funds to sponsor 3 events namely, the medical mission and outreach programs(gift giving) for 2 public schools.We initially planned for medical mission and outreach program to one of the schools in Vigan with most indigent students but our former schoolmate who is now the head teacher of another public school in another town asked us if we can give vitamins to their indigent students too. Thus we set another date for the another event. Our program was even featured at Vigan's local channel, Around Ilocandia Channel(AIC)
1. The Medical Mission was held in the town of San Ildefonso and it was made possible with the help of our batch mates who are now in the field of medicine and one batch mates solicited boxes of medicines and vitamins.Plus, there were other volunteer doctors too.
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| that's one of my batch mates Chris, interviewing a volunteer doctor for their AIC(local TV) coverage |
2. For the Outreach Program/Gift Giving, we went to Vigan National High School-West in Brgy. Bulala after the Medical Mission. For this to be successful, we coordinated with the school's administrator and one of their teachers. From our funds, we gave the students from first year to third year a set of school supplies.For the graduates, we gave them a simple token as gift for their graduation and same with the teachers for their efforts and support. We also prepared snacks for all attendees. To make the students more happy, we had parlor games and prizes too.
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| photo ops per year level |
3. The Outreach Program at Busiing Elememtary School in San Ildefonso as I've said earlier was only planned while we were having our lunch after the medical mission.This time we gave the kids vitamins and medicines. The head teacher also requested wall clock for every classroom in the school.
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| School head being interviewed for AIC |
It was so fun and fulfilling.. Fun because we got to see again our former classmates and fulfilling because we got to help others.Didn't I said that I went home just for this?
