Curious to find out about the experience of being a part of this huge-scale event, we talked to three youths from kaLIFEdoscope’s planning committee.
How was the concept of the inaugural youth event, kaLIFEdoscope, born?
Jolene Low: The concept of kaLIFEdoscope came from the idea of having a run that celebrates life, and how the ups and downs in life can be fun if we take an optimistic approach. We wanted to show that life can be a kaleidoscope of colours.
Yueying Lim: We wanted to make engagement fun in addition to being meaningful, and the idea of a race came up. Gradually, this idea developed into kaLIFEdoscope, which we hoped would communicate the idea of stepping up to embrace “life”, and facing challenges with resilience. To encourage the concept of “friendship” and “togetherness”, kaLIFEdoscope was made a fun run instead of a competitive obstacle course.
What was the purpose of the obstacle run? How do you think it was important/relevant to the youths?
Shirley Ong: One of the purposes of the obstacle race was to reach out to the youths. We wanted to bring across learning points such as resilience and perseverance. We wanted to show that the obstacle race represented life – full of unpredictable obstacles and challenges.
Yueying Lim: I felt that it was important/relevant because many people tend to associate volunteering with being boring. The phrase “impacting the community’ is overused. Through kaLIFEdoscope, one message that we would like to spread is that service can be both meaningful and interesting.
What was so different about this youth event compared to other youth events in school or even in Singapore?
Jolene Low: One main be that kaLIFEdoscope was planned by youths, for youths. This was an extremely heartfelt event planned by youths who believed in the cause and genuinely wanted to reach out to impact other youths.
Yueying Lim: kaLIFEdoscope was not a KPI-bsed event. It was initiated by YOUTHsync and carried through by the youths. We didn’t have to do kaLIFEdoscope, we wanted to do kaLIFEdoscope.
What did you enjoy most whilst planning for the event?
Jolene Low: I enjoyed working with the team the most. It was very inspiring to work with people who were passionate about the same cause.
Shirley Ong: The day I saw our plan coming to life. It reminded me of all the ups and downs we experienced in this journey.
Yueying Lim: Witnessing the event come to fruition. It felt like witnessing the birth of our child.
What were the obstacles you faced whilst planning the event and how did you overcome them?
Shirley Ong: keeping a relatively large team of volunteers in the loop most of the time so I delegated this task to a few leaders, trusting them rest of the team members.
Yueying Lim: There were times when we were demoralised because of the lack of progress during the planning stage, or just dismayed at our inability to complete certain tasks due to our lack of experience. We are thankful to our mentors from MYMCA and Orange Room.
What is one thing you have learnt from kaLIFEdoscope that you wish to impart to the youths in general?
Jolene Low: Nothing is impossible. Planning an obstacle course may seem hard, and throughout our planning journey there were times where we doubted our abilities to pull it off, but we did it in the end.
Shirley Ong: I hope that youths can understand that ups and downs are unavoidable and sometimes beyond our control. But persevering and choosing to get up each time we fall is always within our sphere of choice.
What was the biggest highlight or most memorable part of the event?
Jolene Low: The most memorable part of the event for me was when the last wave point, I just thought, “wow, we did it!”
Yueying Lim: It will be the days leading up to kaLIFEdoscope, specifically the week before. It was the time when we saw the fruits of our labour. One by one, things fell into place. Everything felt so surreal. The biggest highlight for me was definitely to see kaLIFEdoscope come to life.
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