Navratri is one of the most popular festivals of Gujarat and also one of my favorites. Three of my friends and I planned and organized Garba fest in our school. It was a fund-raising event, where we raised money to donate it to a charity working for sanitation for women and girls. Besides that, our motive was also to play Garba and have fun with our friends. We did face multiple issues however, I was glad that we were able to work through them together to make our event a huge success.

L3-Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

During a casual conversation, we came up with this idea of organizing the Garba fest in our school. We thought it would be best to have four people in our core team, as we had multiple things to take care of, like food, transport, decoration, etc. Fortunately, our idea was immediately approved by our CAS advisor which gave us the advantage to start with the planning process well in advance. When we started planning for the event, we decided that we would sell passes and donate the profit generated to a sanitation drive. First, we had to divide our roles to decide who would do what. I worked on the decoration and designing of the passes and posters with one of my friends and I took up the entire responsibility for managing the finance. All of us had decided to take part in the marketing process where we would convince the students to attend our event. Even though we had separate aspects to take care of, each one of us helped one another wherever necessary.

L2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Managing finance was the toughest task for me during the process. I was supposed to collect all the money and give away the passes in between classes and during breaks. I also noted down their names as and when they paid the money. This was on the first day itself and I noticed that it made the process very time-consuming which lead to a lot of people gathering around and telling me to hurry up. I wouldn’t have been able to overcome this challenge if my other teammates hadn’t stepped in. They would take turns helping me writing the name which made the process faster and easier.

L4-commitment to and perseverance

I was committed to completing all my tasks properly on time and I also kept on checking with my team members on where they were with their work as well. There were sometimes that I compromised on my meal breaks in order to get the work done. The finance, the decoration, and the designing of the passes and posters altogether was a tiring process. However, I knew that Garba Fest was worth the hard work, and that to make the event successful, I had to do my best. I did all my work keeping this positive attitude, and seeing that the event was a huge success, I was glad that I chose to stay dedicated.

L5- Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively

All of us worked well together which is why we could make this amazing event happen. During the planning process, there were some differences and disagreements between two people at times, but with the help of other team members, we were able to sort them out smoothly. Time management was a concern for all of us since we had to do our work between classes and during breaks. However, we were proactive enough to help each other in finishing the task even when it wasn’t our responsibility. This cooperation and support is one of the main reasons because of which we were not only able to finish our work but also make sure that it was of good quality.

LO 6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance