On November 7th, 2015, You Dao hosted the Migrant Children Sports Day at the Shanghai Rugby Football Club.
Shanghai experienced torrential rainfall in the morning and many thought the Sports Day would be cancelled. However, the weather luckily cleared up and the games were on!
The You Dao staff and volunteers arrived at the rugby club early to setup. You Dao friends from 7 companies from different industries formed 10 teams with more than 100 adult volunteers in total. Each participant received a You Dao t-shirt and then patiently waited for the children to arrive.
God seemed to smile down on the children and as they arrived the sun broke through the clouds and beautiful blue skies emerged.
Although there were a lot of people, the You Dao staff was very well organized and carefully introduced each group of children to their respective team of adult volunteers. After the 10 teams were divided, You Dao’s Chairman Compton announced the start of the games.
The Rugby Club coaches setup 5 different games for the groups: football, baseball, soccer, dodge ball, and cricket. For many of the children, this was their first time playing any of these different games. The coaches designed the games so they would be fun and simple and allow the children to bond with their adult teammates. The teams rotated through every game to experience all different types of fun.
Many of the adult volunteers were company owners, executives, and employees but on this day they forgot those roles and played like joyful children with their migrant children teammates.
Playing with the children allowed many of the parent volunteers to remember what it was like to play with their kids and allowed the younger volunteers who are not yet parents to experience what it is like to be a parent. The children also had a great time learning these new games and enthusiastically tried their best at each new sport.
The children and volunteers ran around for hours trying the new sports. At 4pm the gong sounded signaling the end of the exhausting sports activities.
After leaving the playing fields, everyone gather inside for dinner. The children lined up to grab dinner and the volunteers helped to serve them food.
After dinner, the children lined up to get back on the buses. Many of the volunteers followed them to the bus to say their goodbyes. The volunteers wished them luck and told them to “study hard!” and “listen to your parents!” Though they were only together a couple of hours, the children and volunteers brought immense joy to each other’s lives.
Throughout the Sports Day the children were all very well behaved. They did not fight or litter and were very kind and respectful to the adult volunteers. They did a great job representing all migrant worker’s children.
The hundred children's happy faces were hard to forget and brought great joy to the volunteers and staff of You Dao. Seeing the children so happy made them realize their hard work was worth the effort.
A special thank you to all of the volunteers and the companies who helped make this event possible, including:
Ingredion
Winsales
Boston Scientific
Nexans (China) Wires & Cables Co., Ltd.
LIXIL Water Technology Group
FedEx
Shanghai Feng Tao Development Limited
Fast Fish
Elite Residences
Peninsula Hotel
Camenae Asia for wine sponsorship
Shanghai Rugby Football Club
A special thank you to all of the volunteers. Thank you to all of the You Dao staff for your support. We look forward to seeing you all again next year.