The last time I helped out at a carnival was at my high school- St. David High School, Melaka, last two years ago. This time around, I had the opportunity to be involved in Nalanda Buddhist Society's yearly Family Fun Fair. The fun fair was aimed to raised fund for a new Buddhist school called- the K. Sri Dhammananda Centre in Seri Serdang. With this new learning facility, the future leaders in the Dharma will have a comfortable place to learn.
As I arrived at Nalanda Buddhist Society, Nalandians were doing some last-minute preparations to make sure everything at the fun fair was in top form and not a single time to loose. Under the guidance of the Nalanda volunteers, Sunway Buddhist Society's stall was located in between Y9 (UPM Buddhist Society) and Y11 (Serdang Buddhist Society). Along the way, other participated Buddhist societies were Bodhi Heartz, Monash University, IMU (International Medical University), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR, Sungai Long campus) and of course the host, Nalanda Youth. Some Buddhist societies hailed from Kedah, Kelantan, Johor as well as Singapore!
Before the fun fair was kicked off, the national anthem- Negaraku was played and a small prayer was conducted. With the hit of the gong three times, the fun fair has officially begun! Some stalls even started to sell their food as early as 8.50am. Herbal jelly, muffins and butter cookies were on our side. We promoted our products by selling to the participating Buddhist youth societies, later on we shifted our targets to the customers. Since it was the weekend, the fun fair was packed with people from all walks of life.
Even though the sun was scorching hot, it didn't burn our spirits down as we were doing our best to attract the customers to buy our food and drinks. We took turns to take care of the stall, while some of us walked around the big field to look at other stalls and possibly get our tummies to be fed along the way? As noon approached, we decided to take our products outside of the stall so more customers will buy, especially the Sprite and Ribena combination drink- the perfect way to cool yourself off from the intense heat.
When Chia Tee, Qiong Fang and Sil Leong came back, it was time for Cynthia and I to get legs stretched out by taking a break as in walking around the stalls and had lunch to boost up our energy. We came back from our break, Bro. Ajit was conducting interviews at the Youth stalls and I was the lucky one to play the "spokesperson" for Sunway University Buddhist Society. Hopefully through this mini interview, the society's reputation will boost up and attract more students to join the big family.
The fun fair ended at 4pm, a small prayer was conducted to conclude today's fun fair. It was also an opportunity for participated Buddhist youth societies to know each other, we even exchanged phone numbers and social media accounts for future collaborations. Thank you Nalanda Buddhist Society for the invitation!
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