Manuel Pelayo
CSU Dominguez Hills
What is Day of the Child? Day of
the Child: Children Uniting Nations’
Annual Day of the Child (DOTC) is
designed to bring awareness to and
support the needs of children who
are living in and out of home care.
The primary goal of the day is to secure “long-term” mentors for these
very special children.
Each year we bring together 1,000
youth living in foster care throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan
area and 1,000 community volunteers (Mentors) for a day of fun in
a carnival like atmosphere. Each
child is matched with a mentor for
the day recruited by our staff from
Corporate Partners, Local Colleges,
Universities and Community Organizations. The pair enjoy inter-active
team building activities, carnival
Ricky Liang
UC Berkeley
Day of the Child:
Children Uniting Nations
rides, game booths, variety of food
and drinks and so forth.
This year DOTC was held at Santa
Monica Pier and CSUDH Circle K International had the sole privilege of
volunteering in this event and getting to know people from different
schools and different organization.
But what stood out more for me in
this event was the fact that I had
to opportunity to be paired up with
child and just be a mentored for him
for a whole day.
I had the privileged to be paired up
with a 5th grader at first my mentee
was a little shy and a bit of uncomfortable due to the fact that he was
paired up with me and 4 other girls.
But as the day progress he was
starting to open up little by little
until he got comfortable with us.
What made me happy was the fact
that I made a huge impact on him
and every time he wanted to go a
carnival ride he would ask me “Manny, are you going to get on the ride
with me” every time I said “Yes” .
The day went by very quick and the
time to depart from my mentee was
fast approaching so we took advantage of time by riding as many rides
as we could have in a short amount
of time. So the time to depart finally came, for many mentors like me
we were dreading this moment because we bonded with our mentees’
so much that tears started coming
out when they left mostly because
you knew you made a huge impact
to this child’s life that it would be
something they would never forget.
Want to Learn How to
Chair a Project / Event?
“Say what? I can be the captain of the crew? Make
me captain, and I’ll steer us to service!”
“Alright! I think I’ll sign up to chair a project! Being a
captain sounds cool, but what exactly do Ihave to do?”
If you want to become the leader for a particular
event, you can! By signing up for the chair-a-project
list, you’ll be allowed to chair a variety of events,
whether they be working with the elderly, the homeless, children, the environment, or some other form of
service! Scour the open seas for possibilities of service!
Don’t think that the options are only limited to service though. You’ll also be able to sign up for mini-socials that are planned by the Spirit & Social Committee. These include, but arenot limited to, hangouts,
food stops, group exercise, and other activities that
people like to do together.
Don’t worry; you won’t be left alone to figure everything out by yourself when you sign up to chair
a project. You’ll be given all of the instructions you
need, from beginning to end. These generally involve
making announcements, sending out emails, getting
to the event location, figuring out what to do, and
coming back.
You’ll also be assisted throughout the chairing experience. If you ever need anyone to help you at any
point in time, you can speak to a board member and
ask for help! They are there to help you enjoy your experience!
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