Friday, April 24, 2009

Camping for Children

21st March 2009: The idea of providing a camping experience for the children in Emerald Park has been brooding in the mind of our AJK member, Lee Heng Lee, for a long time indeed. Chaired by Mazlan and all AJKs, we were able to launch this project with a participation of 33 children ranging from toddlers up to school leaving age. The response was overwhelming and we had to limit the numbers to about 30. We started the evening around 6pm with the children bringing 9 tents of their own and 5 tents were provided by the NS Rescue Team, making a total of 14 tents, all pitched up in the basketball court for the night. Meanwhile, food, organised by Mej Hidayat, was being prepared at the other end of the basketball court. A BBQ pit was set up and all had a hand in grilling marinated chicken pieces, lamb chops, prawns, and sausages. We had also arranged for fried noodles, fried rice and drinks to be provided. Just after dinner, it was time for some games for the kids. A carefully thought out treasure-hunt, devised by Elynn Lee and provided with all the paraphernalia required to execute the game, was launched with the help of college students : Nahvin Jayaratnam, Rajpal Singh, and Bajwin Singh. The children were split into 5 groups randomly and the interaction among them to solve the clues was both entertaining and fascinating! Since the game finished at 11pm, there was no time for other games that had been planned. So the kids and the adult AJK minders all retired for the night. Fortunately, the evening and night saw no rain except for a slight drizzle in the early hours of the next morning which anyway did not dampen the spirit of the campers. Breakfast was nasi lemak and milo for all and the camping came to an end at 10am on Sunday. This camping programme was a trial run for us to gain experience and know-how in terms of logistics so that we can have a similar camp open to all the children in Emerald Park, hopefully during the school holidays at the end of the year. Nevertheless, all those who were involved will admit that it was a resounding success!