Charity: Shanghai Sunrise
Outcomes: Help newly introduced students and sponsors break the ice and provide a fun activity during the Pairing Ceremony
As part of our ongoing efforts to do our part for the local community, Team Building Asia offers team building programs to benefit local charities and NGOs. In the past we had collaborated with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Breast Cancer Foundation and Operation Santa Claus and had been awarded a Caring Company status by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services.
In November 2009, Team Building Asia (TBA) had the pleasure of supporting Shanghai Sunrise during their annual Pairing Ceremony at the Hilton Hotel. This was an important event. For the first time, the students would meet the sponsor representatives who helped change their lives through an educational sponsorship.
During the ceremony, TBA helped students and sponsors break the ice by engaging them in a fun juggling session known as the Juggling Motivator. Students and sponsors got to coach each other through the learning process and it wasn’t long before peals of laughter echoed through the room.
As the session progressed, the students’ self confidence increased proportionately as each of them advanced successfully from juggling one ball, to finally three balls concurrently. By encouraging them to increase the number of throws, the aim was to strengthen their perseverance and motivation. In between helping their peers and coaching their sponsors, the activity also hugely boosted the students’ self-esteem.
At the end of the one hour session, everyone went away with a new skill and with the juggling balls as a memento to mark the special day. Yet more importantly, the event had helped forge an irreplaceable bond between the sponsors and the students.
It was an extremely rewarding experience for the TBA team to participate in this event. We certainly look forward to further collaborations of similar nature with Shanghai Sunrise, and other charitable organizations in the future; either as a sponsor or by linking the charities with corporate groups though mutually beneficial team building events.
“We welcomed over 140 new Sunrise students and 50 sponsor representatives, marking the start of many new sponsor relationships. The workshop helped so much to facilitate this first meeting. It was great to see so many smiles and hear so much laughter. Both the students and sponsors had a lot of fun; the ice was well and truly broken!”
Carole Kurowski, Events & Fundraising Director, Shanghai Sunrise
