YMCA & MAKE-A-WISH

lately, i feel so nua and my timetable is pretty much all screwed up too. i sleep at 5am and arise after 3pm the following day. in between i download and watch movies online. at this rate, i'm gonna be the next "stay puft marshmallow man". if you don't know who that is, he's the gargantuan walking marshmallow from the ghostbuster movie (1984). yes, i watched that movie 2 days back. before that, i caught rambo - first blood (1982), borat, ghostbusters 2 (1989), indiana jones - raiders of the lost ark, meet the parents, rush hour 2, music & lyrics, etc. wow, couple that with the food i eat (where's my latte and bubble tea?), i really am on my way to becoming the next "stay puft marshmallow man".

so, what else have i been up to? volunteering. couple of weeks back, i was at this toy convention, helping out with this organization called make-a-wish foundation. initially, i was assigned a tin can *cringes* and told to go around collecting $. as expected, i was avoided like the plague. even the people at the booths ran away (when i went back later, without the tin can, they entertained me). haha. after an hour, i went back to my booth albeit with an empty can. "i can't do this. is there something else i could do?" i was given a stack of brochures and told to create publicity. that suited me fine. i went to the wii corner (near the entrance) and started distributing. thankfully, singaporeans adore freebies (brochures included). we take first, see later. in between my rounds, i tried several wii games. regarding funds, the tin can tactic was clearly paling in comparison to the star wars photo-taking gimmick. "would you like to take a photo with our star wars character? $5 with your own camera, $7 with ours and we'll print a copy for you after that. all in the name of charity." ka-ching!

a few days later, i was involved in another event, the YMCA DAY @ the OPERA. volunteers-wise, this was on a much larger scale. we had close to a hundred befrienders? unlike the event at suntec, the volunteers were here not to create awareness (for YMCA) nor to collect funds. YMCA brought a opera troupe from hong kong to entertain the elderly. we were there to befriend the elderly, to chit-chat and bring them around (the occasional toilet break). in the midst of the crowd, i saw esther tan, my former english teacher. close to 7 years since i last saw e.t. i approached her, found out she was a teacher again, took a photo, exchanged contacts and she is now my friend on facebook.

comparing the two events, without a doubt, YMCA DAY @ the OPERA left a deeper impression on me. don't be mistaken, i'm not saying the former (make-a-wish) was mundane. i did derive quite a lot of fun from the whole toys convention (taking photos and trying out the wii games). the make-a-wish concept, "granting wishes to terminally-ill kids", is something pretty noble too. that said, the stares i garnered from my tin can exploits aren't something enviable. the YMCA event on the other hand, i could relate to it. the fact that we were in the midst of the action, befriending, giving, helping (one way or the other), it was tangible. compare that to fund-raising (important, but not my cup of tea), you collect $, you meet your target, you are joyous, you celebrate, but do you feel the warmth? from the star wars event, i did not. perhaps i should try being a wish-granter sometime soon.