People often get so caught up in their own lives, that we tend to forget about those around us. As a strong enthusiast for charity work, I've been looking forward to writing this post, and sharing with you the pleasure I had volunteering this Christmas season! I throughly enjoyed both volunteering events I attended over these past two weeks; Riding for the Disabled (RDA) and the Christmas tea party for the elderly organized by Bangor University.
As you are probably now very aware, I have a great love for volunteering for the charity RDA. I was finally able to attend one of their sessions (by skipping project talks.. whoops! ^^), it was the last session of the year, and it was Christmas themed. I had so much fun last year during the Christmas session that I just HAD to go again! The clients had so much fun and their happiness radiated right across the entire riding school, there's no way you could leave an RDA session (especially a Christmas themed one!) without a smile across your face. The horses were dressed in tinsel (incredibly cute! ^^) and the volunteers wore santa hats and all sorts of Christmas decorations, Christmas music played in the background, and the clients were renamed elves, reindeers and unicorns for the day ^^ They loved it! Unfortunately I didn't take any photos, I wish I had taken some of the horses dressed in their tinsel, because it was just too cute! *sigh*
Saturday was spent volunteering at the Christmas tea party for the elderly. I had been looking forward to the event for a really long time, and it was a really big turn out! Approximately 65 people attended and there were a lot more student volunteers then I expected, which was lovely to see!
Every year Bangor University hold this event for the local elderly people in the community, to show them a little bit of respect and to let them know that although students can be a little (*very) noisy and wild, we do care about them and the local community. It also aims to bring a bit of Christmas spirit and entertainment to those who may feel lonely at home. I think the latter is such an important reason for events such as this to be organized for the elderly... there are so many people who live alone, whose spouses sadly aren't with them anywhere and whose children have grown up and moved away, and I think it's very important that we make an effort to reduce that sense of loneliness! Events such as this bring people together, give people someone to talk to and laugh with, and it made me so incredibly happy seeing others having fun!
It was such a well organized day, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The volunteers arrived early and decorated the dining area, and warmly greeted the guests upon their arrival. The day consisted of food, tea (lots of it!), a raffle, bingo (!!) and live music (by the cutest band of four brothers!).
Us little santa's helpers setting up the room!
Little miss Lucy decked out in her super cute Christmas jumper and wacky Santa hat (aka the hat with the 'lucky antler') ^^
The booze!
The raffle table (they were all really great prizes!)
On your marks, get set... BINGO! ^^
Santa the bingo man!
Santa's little helpers (the best of them all! ^^)... my beautiful Beth and Lucy <3
My Christmas volunteering experiences were made all the better by my beautiful friends who joined me. I've had such a wonderful semester with my little uni family, and i'm going to miss them quite a bit whilst I'm at home for the Christmas holiday!
I'm on my way back home to Spain now, waiting cosily in Caffè Nero at the airport for my gate number to appear on the screen. I got here so early! I woke up at 6.30am (yes, that's right!), caught the train at 8am, arrived at the airport at 11am now here I am talking to you! I can't wait to get home, I'm so excited to see my family, and my little fluffy goofball puppies!
I'll leave you for now with the photos I asked my good friend Belle (you should check out her blog... here!) to take of the Christmas lights around Singapore! Singapore always decorates so beautifully during Christmas, and this is the second year I've missed them! I'm so grateful to her for making the effort to go out and do this for me, it makes me not feel so distant from my beautiful little Singalingapore <3
I hope you're all well and are enjoying this festive season!
-Alyssa xo
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