GCA FASHION SHOW (work as a volunteer)

Fashion Show is a big event to our school, and every year our school would spend a lot of money in this project.

Luckily, Sylvia and I became the emcee and the Grade 10 chief contact person. So that means, I was in charge of many things There were many things should be done before the Fashion Show, such us the back up banner, the model training, the make-up. At last, Sylvia and I divided jobs for ourselves. I was going to be charge of the making of the back up banner, and Sylvia and I were going to be charge of the model training together.

To make a back-up banner was a really difficult job. The banner was very big. The length was 6 meters and the width was 3 meters. There would be 27 letters total. I found 6 more volunteers to help me to do this work. Because we wanted to make the letters very bright, so we decided to us paint to paint all the letters. Also, we didn’t want to make all the letters in the same style, we decided to use different ways to paint.

After we made all the letters (which took us nearly 10 hours), we got another big problem, which is how to put all the letters on the curtain. We decided not to use the double side tape because we were afraid it would drop off easily. At last, we used staples to staple all the letters on the curtain.

The model training part was extremely tired. Not all the models came on time, and they were speaking in a loud voice. Sylvia and I needed to talk in a louder voice and gave everyone their order. We needed to tell them how to walk on the stage. It took us more than 3 hours to finish all the training part.

The emcee part was the most exciting part for me. I found I really love this job. I was the emcee of our school’s talent show, and I became the emcee of the school’s fashion show! There were 6 emcees total for this fashion show. My partner Alex and I were going to introduce the uniform part and the teacher’s clothes. Actually, this time, we didn’t practice a lot because at the weekend before the fashion show, we even didn’t know what the cloths looked like. At last, we decided not to practice at all.

On the day of the fashion show, someone helped me to do the make-up. I dressed in nice clothes. When I went on the stage, I found I was not nervous at all. I felt excited about this. I thought I was really brave now. There were many audience looking at me, the only felling I had was that I felt confident.

The Fashion Show didn’t last for a long time. After it ended, I took pictures with many teachers.

I did many voluntary works during the whole Fashion Show project. I got 20 voluntary work hours totally.

THE VOLUNTEER WORK AT NANKING ORPHANAGE

【① at the gate of Nanking Orphange ②inside the orphange, at the children's living room ③the verification of my volunteer work ④the log of my volunteer work】

From Jan. 20th to Jan. 22nd, I went to the Nanking Orphanage and did my volunteer work. I usually played with the children there or taught them some simple English. During the 3 days, I got new impression of the children in the orphanage. On the other hand, I learnt some experience about how to teach or play with the children in the orphanage. After my 3-day volunteer work, I believed I can did some other works more effectively than before, which I thought was very useful and necessary for me.

The Nanking Orphanage was very beautiful and the orphans lived quite happy in the orphanage. Before I visited the orphanage, I thought it might be dirty and small. The children there would live in a bad condition. The workers there might be very acrimonious. They would be rude to the children very often. However, as soon as I arrived at the orphanage, I found that all of my opinions were wrong, totally wrong. The orphanage was very big and beautiful. Two main buildings and a small garden formed it. After met the director of the orphanage, I went to the fourth floor of the Rainbow Building (one of the buildings in the orphanage) which is mainly for the 6-10 years old children. To my surprise, the children there were quite happy. Some of them were playing with each other while others were watching TV when I came into their living room. The grandmothers (people who took care of those children there were usually called as “grandmothers”) there really took good care to the children. They were very nice to them.

From 8 a.m to 11 a.m, the children need to do their homework. I usually sat down on a chair nearby and read some books. Once the children need any help, I would go straight to them and answer their questions. Because the children there were in Grade 3 to Grade 5, I could answer most of their questions easily. Well, the only thing that I could not answer was the question about music. I really had a hard time on the music aspect. The children would have lunch at 11 a.m and had a nap to 1 p.m. I went to a restaurant nearby and enjoyed my meal during this time. Usually, I went back to the orphanage at 1 p.m and started to teach them some simple English. They learnt English at school, so I helped them to review for a while and then taught them something new. At about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, we played games together in the garden for 1 hour. Later on, the children would go back to their living room and watch TV. I brought “UNO” with me and taught them how to play. Many children were interested in this new card game, so some of them were playing “UNO” with me while others were watching TV. I left the orphanage at about 7:30 p.m.

After I finished my 3 days volunteer work at the Nanking Orphanage, I found I learnt many things. The children in the orphanage were very quite when I first saw them. The nannies there told me I could play with them for a while and make good relations with them. Luckily, after one hour playing, most of the children were more active than before. After a whole day, we had become good friends. They said they hoped to see me again, and I felt very happy about it. I also mentioned that the children there would feel bored if I taught them English sentence by sentence. However, after I made some games by those English sentences, the children showed more interests than before. I decided to go to the orphanage quite often and play with the children there. I thought that could make them happier if I did so.

The volunteer work only lasted for 3 days, but I leant a lot from it. I knew the orphans had a nice home and lived happily inside. I got experiences about how to teach the young children. I realized the importance of volunteer work. It could help me to get more impression of the society that I lived in. Any way, I believed I had learnt many useful skills during this three-day volunteer work, and I was willing to do more next vacation.