Bal Mela is a social event taking place at Fountainhead. Around 1000 kids from the local underprivileged schools gather at FS and take part in various fun activities and magic, puppet shows. This event takes place to share the joy that we as privileged kids have with the kids from lower socio-economic backgrounds. They are invited every year to come and take part in activities such as clay modeling, mask making, nail art, etc. Our school did assist us everywhere, but the major work had to be done by us.

LO1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth. & LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

This were very evident learnings because we had to be self-reliant all the tasks were very new for us, thus all of them became a challenge that built some of the other skills in us. I knew I was good at finances so I decided to handle the budgeting all by myself. The resources were in bulk and we had to keep in mind that they should be used efficiently and neither money, not the resource is wasted. Moreover, there were several problems that occurred end moment, like volunteers backing out and the unavailability of resources. We had to then make arrangements and take spontaneous decisions that were learning for me and developed the skill of making quick and thoughtful decisions. This was a great opportunity for personal growth.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience. & LO4:Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

This were demonstrated as despite of this event already existing in previous years, we brought in new ideas and creativity to the activities we planned and even how we managed volunteers and a crowd of about 1900 people. Even though this was in middle of our academics and we had to manage time, additionally, there were several unseen obstacles that came by, we all core members were determinant to make this event a success and kept working towards this aim that in the end was accomplished.

LO5:Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Students are taken through different venues one by one and each school is assigned a volunteer/teacher from Fountainhead to escort them. I was assigned to handle the activity of Airplane Toss along with one support staff. Both of us delegated responsibility, one of us taught the children to make the airplanes whereas the other one held the target where the airplane was supposed to pass through. The children after making their airplanes came to me to start playing. I recorded the names of each of those who were successful in hitting the target and sent them to the didi (my co-partner) to collect their rewards. We needed to be very kind and gentle with the kids as they were young.

LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

The LO was largely catered to this since we identified how the underprivileged kids don’t get all that they deserve, their sources of entertainment are hardly anything and a day dedicated to them, their smile and happiness was very important for us to realize the importance of gratitude in our lives. There were several issues of global significance that were catered to during this event and has brought a lot of self-realization in me as well.

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