Easter Festival

4/19/2025 - Service

Every year, my church hosts an Easter Festival, and every year, I volunteer at it. Usually, I'm assigned to the cotton candy stand, making and handing out cotton candy, but this time, I volunteered at the prize station, where children handed in the eggs they collected for a prize (we recycle the eggs every year). I was a bit nervous about this assignment because at least at the cotton candy station, I didn't have to talk to the parents or children. Ultimately, though, it went a lot smoother than expected, and giving instructions to the parents on the prize-exchanging was pretty simple too-- a single red ticket and their eggs for a bag of goodies and an additional colored handkerchief! I occasionally had to speak Chinese to get my point across, or try my best to, but for an event hosted by a Chinese church (and thus broadcasted in predominantly Chinese social media circles), there were a surprising amount of people who weren't Chinese which I comfortably spoke in English to.

LO7: At the prize station, interacting with the parents did have its merits, even if I didn't enjoy it that much-- watching the different families and observing their unique dynamics made my time at the station a lot more interesting. Some parents allowed their children, no matter how little, to slowly choose from the piles of handkerchiefs to find their own, while others rushed through the process and picking a color for their child, not wanting to hold up the line but forgetting the meaning of 'having fun at a festival' in the process. Other times, the parents wouldn't even be besides their children when they were handing in their eggs, but I usually recognized these children as fellow churchgoers. The point is, though, is that the first type of family always brought a smile to my face, and for the second type, I'd make sure to encourage the child to take their time and choose. Of the few families that rushed through the prize-picking process, they were usually Chinese (I had to speak Chinese to them) and honestly, I pitied the child(ren) whose parents cared more about others' time or checking off the list of things to do at the festival... than their own children's joy. For them, I hoped that I could help them have a better festival.

Aim, Communication, Time, Investigation, Value, Engagement