CNH CKI's The Sunburst Volume 55, Issue 3 Volume 52, Issue #3 | Page 9

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! 09