Operation Smile concert

Last night was Operation Smile's "Smile Concert '12".
It took place in the school Arts Centre: the auditorium was where the performances were going on, and the reception was in the lobby.

In the lobby, we had a stand selling drinks as well as SMILE-themed food (e.g. cupcakes with smiles on them and half-moon pizzas). We also had tables for the audience to eat their food, but on each table, there were information cards about Kenyan children's stories: they had undergone their operations, and they told what it felt like before and after getting their cleft lips and palates repaired.

(At the bottom of the information cards, the contacts are as follows:
info— christabel.onyona@operationsmile.org
office cell— +254-735-788969 or +254-729-087925
website— www.operationsmile.org )

We had a third stand, where we were selling Operation Smile T-shirts and baseball caps, (all the money received went to Operation Smile), and where we had a donation box for those who wished to help.
(If you want to help but don't know how, view this post and follow the links!)

We were aiming to raise enough money for one operation, and if we were lucky, two. At the beginning of the event, a few students were slightly nervous, because not many people had showed up yet. However, in the next ten minutes, the lobby had filled itself up with an audience: they were buying food, drinks, hats, shirts and donating, and it gave us hope that this event would be fruitful and a lot of fun.

The performers did very well, and I know that everyone enjoyed the show.

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By the end of the event, we had sold all of the refreshments and most of the clothing. Our donation box was more than half full, and it was the Operation Smile members who left with smiles on their faces.
Today, we found out that we had collected 145,000ksh overall! That's $1,745! With that, we can give not one, not two, but 7 children smiles!
I truly believe that that was the best part of this whole event: knowing that we were really helping people.

ISK Prom 2012

The ISK Prom night, "Walk into Wonderland" took place last night.
The Decoration committee (of which I am co-chair with Sara L., as seen in the keyhole) along with a few other Prom committee members spent the whole day preparing for the event.
We had asked for the club to lend us decorations and props, such as fairy lights, drapes, tables, chairs etc. but most of the props and decorations came from us, lent by students or bought with the money we have accumulated over the year.

Many of the decorations were handmade too: for example, the cocktail tables with the mushroom table cloths were made by us, the lanterns hanging above them, the crazy colourful signs: all painstakingly hand made.
As all of these photos were taken in daylight, it might be hard to imagine what the event looked like at night with all the fairy lights twinkling, people chatting and dancing.

The prom was so much fun, and I think that this year's seniors truly enjoyed it: after all, the prom was for them, even though students from other grades had the opportunity to appreciate it.













As you can see, all the photos of the venue have a watermark on them, even though they are students' photographs. This is because the club didn't want people outside of ISK to know what the venue was like. However, these photos were taken before the venue, and they won't be shown to anyone outside of ISK, so problems with copyright issues have been resolved.

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I forgot to post that I also made the ticket for prom, as well as the video that played on a continuous loop on a backdrop (which can be seen in the photo above to the right). The video was meant to be hypnotising, and have an 'Alice in Wonderland' crazy feel to it. For the video, I used a few clips downloaded from the internet as well as excerpts from a video made by Shaheel P.
The actual video was 14 minutes long, though it was repeated again and again, with different quotes from ALice in Wonderland, such as "We're all mad here", "Off with their heads!" and "Curiouser & Curiouser".

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The Prom ticket's design was based on an old fashioned luggage tag, as I wanted to give the seniors a sense of elegance and charm: the theme is totally mad, and so there was no need to blast them with craziness from the start, as they would surely receive their dose of madness and fantasy once they arrived at the venue.
I used photoshop to create the ticket, and I used calligraphic handwriting for the words. At the bottom of the ticket, I inserted a quote from the novel: "Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right directions". I didn't use quotation marks, however, so that the students coming to the event would get a small notion of the craziness that is Wonderland.

Once the ticket was done, I tried to find ways to make the ticket look more original. And because the entrance to the prom was a keyhole, I had the idea of using a key in the ticket, to simulate 'unlocking' the door to Wonderland. I came across this picture from 'White Whimsey' (see below right), and so we attached a paper key (attaching real keys would sadly have been a little too expensive) to each tag.












It feels slightly unbelievable that a whole school year (and some) of hard work, fundraising and planning could amount to one evening that didn't last much longer than 4 hours. Of course, all this work didn't amount to nothing: our goal was to please our fellow students and ourselves, and I think that we achieved that goal quite well.

GIN elections

In ISK's Global Issues Network, we had elections for next year's official positions (2 co-chairs, secretary, treasurer). I ran for co-chair, as I am really passionate about global issues and the environment, as well as how we can conserve, protect and restore our global environment. (After all, I want to study Ecology & Conservation or Medicine at university)

I think that 6 of us ran for co-chair, though only one person ran for secretary, and only one person ran for treasurer, so their positions were secured in advance.
We all made short speeches as to why we want to be co-chair/secretary/treasurer, and why we would be the best person for the job.

After that, we didn't know anything for a few days, and then a sign outside Mrs Lavender's classroom (One of the two GIN supervisors) went up announcing who is filling the positions for next year.

The verdict was:
Secretary- Rhea C.
Treasurer- Chloe L.
Co-chairs- Bernice L., Alexander R. and Emma V.

There are three co-chairs because it came to a tie.
I'm really happy that I am now one of GIN's leaders for next year (especially seeing as it is my last year...), and I know that we will do all that we can to improve our club and do as much good in the ISK community, the Kenyan community and the Global community as we can in one year.

Operation Smile Concert Poster

For Operation Smile, the club that supports children with hare lips, we are organizing a charity concert night on Saturday the 14th of April.

Those performing will be the Composers' Club from school: it's good practice and good experience for these students, as many of them are in IB Music or IB Drama, and so the performance should aid them in achieving better public speaking skills.
As well as helping ISK students, we are also helping Kenyan children with cleft lips and palates become cleft free and 'smile-prone'.

The problems that these children face every day include stigmatization, being ostracized and having people, including their own mothers and fathers, run away from them in fear.
They have huge difficulties when it comes to drinking, eating and speaking, and this hinders their social development. Many of them won't live for very long, and most will never have the chance to start a family.
With an operation that costs as little as $240, these children can live a normal life: go to school, make friends, grow up and create a family. (If you wish to Donate, Volunteer, Tell a Friend or Get Help, please click on the appropriate links.)

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I volunteered to make the poster for the concert, because I enjoy using photoshop, and I love doing creative things to help others:
(The girl in the poster's name is Brigid, and she lives in rural Kenya. She who received her operation shortly after this photo was taken.)

If you would like to come and see our students performing songs that they composed or re-written, and you would like to help us with supporting the Operation Smile project in Kenya, then please come to the concert on Saturday 14th of April at the ISK Arts Centre.

Prom Themes...

There were a number of themes that were proposed at the beginning of this year. They included 'Casino Night' 'Winter Wonderland', 'Arabia', 'Neon Nights', 'Wonderland', 'Chinese Dragon Festival' and 'African Nights'. I proposed one of them, the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme.

This is the theme that the prom committee agreed on, though it has been warped a little: now we're calling the 2012 prom 'Walk into Wonderland'.

This theme will hopefully be 'enchanting' for the seniors, though we are making a light psychedelic, (not relating to drug use in any way), twist on the theme.

We finally revealed it to the school on wednesday with a short video that definitely attracted our audience's attention. We also gave the two free tickets to the seniors who won them for the auction.

Prom Dates

There have been many obstacles in the way of our prom committee this year, one of which is the date of the event.
In the school calendar, it is scheduled for the 14th of April, a Saturday. However, that date is no longer free. Because we have chosen our location (Muthaiga Country Club), we need to settle our dates with them.
After having learnt that the 14th was no longer available, we opted for the 28th, which is also unavailable. We considered many other dates, but none were suitable. In the end, we had to pick Friday the 13th of April.
Unlucky for some, but this will be a great, and lucky, night for the seniors.

We are unveiling the theme soon.
:)

Auction (follow-up)

If you remember my post about the student and teacher silent auction, then know this: we raised ksh55,600, which is quite a big sum, and will definitely strongly help us financially.

I know that I forgot to include this detail in the auction post, but the Prom committee announced that whoever was bought for the highest price and whoever bought them would get a free ticket to prom. Those two people are two seniors, Emily and Travis.

Goals to Go (follow-up)

As you probably know, Goals to Go has been cancelled, so your Saturday is free.
This is a huge disappointment to a lot of us, and especially to everyone in Shangilia. There is no reason that we couldn't have held this event, but not enough people signed up and paid for teams, due to lack of publicity and awareness.

However, this is a learning experience, and we are therefore all the more prepared for next year's event. Next year, we will have Goals to Go, and the Shangilia children will play football with us.
I hope that this makes you understand that we will not be shut down and we will not be giving up just because of this one (humiliating nonetheless) flop.
Next year will happen.

Goals to Go Preparation

For Goals to Go, which is taking place on the 25th of February (a Saturday), I am designing, or more accurately, have designed the T-Shirts. There are two models, one black and one white, and here are the images.
The photos show the white shirt, front and back. The original design was made by myself, but a friend did the lettering at the front and back.

In case you don't know what Goals to Go is, it's an annual event created by the Global Issues Network 2 or 3 years ago.
It is a round-robin football (American 'Soccer') tournament where teams of three sign up, are then paired with another team to make a team of six. All the teams play against one another, and the winners receive prizes depending on their placement (1st, 2nd, 3rd).

This year, the money raised will be donated to Shangilia, the orphanage that we visit every two weeks.
We are asking the Shangilia kids to form two teams of six to participate in the event, and it should be loads of fun for a very good cause.

IC Trip Assessment

For my assessment on the IC trip I went to, I made a short video of our time at Mida Creek.

Unfortunately, the video that I made for my IC trip reflection can't be uploaded, so let me describe it for you:

• It begins with a photo of the creek itself, and the music being used is 'Levels' by Avicii. I used this song, because it was the one that everyone sang, ALL THE TIME. I though that it was a good representation of the way that us students experienced this trip.
• The photos are in chronological order, starting in the airport on sunday morning, showing our daily activities, and ending with short clips of everyone on the trip.
• I decided to use lots and lots of photographs to show how active, physical, and 'busy' this trip was. The pace leaves no time for the audience to think, though it is enough time for the audience to subconsciously understand our experiences and our newly-gained knowledge.
• I put the photos in chronological order so that the audience could have a day-by-day account of Mida Creek 2012. 
• However, I didn't just do this video for an audience, but also for myself: so that later on, I can remember my experiences, and so that I learn and remember something new and different each time I watch this video. 
• In regards to the audience, I made it so that they would be inspired. So that they could understand how inspiriting the trip was, and that by going on this trip next year, they too could help, and possibly make a difference in the Malindi-Watamu community.
• The last part of the video is of nearly all the participating students describing the trip in one word or sharing something which stuck with them in one word. A few of them included 'hot', 'sweaty', 'enlightening', 'kayaking', 'situation' etc. Mine was 'beach'. 

Now, when you think of the word 'beach', you must probably think of relaxing, holidays and sun-tans. However, when I said it that day, I said it because this whole trip is centred around the coastline. The coastline is many people's livelihoods, what affects their day-to-day life, and what affected our life while we were there.

(Hopefully, if you are part of the ISK community, you'll be able to see the video in assembly soon!)