Contributed by Angeline Chan
Stadiums are usually peppered with joggers on a Saturday afternoon but on 27 June 2009, Yishun Stadium was filled with the excited chatter of children. It was City Harvest Children’s Church’s sports day and over a hundred children and parents attended this annual event. Besides catering to the children’s social, emotional and mental needs, Children’s Church aims to ensure that a child learns about the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The children were seated according to their coloured group which were divided into blue, green, yellow and red. The event started off with the children and teachers relay race. The children rushed forward to take part in the short 50 metre race when the emcees, Gladys Wong and Adrian Cheung, called for volunteers. Eileen Teo, the pastor of City Harvest Children’s Church, also joined in the teachers’ race. It was a challenging race as the male teachers were told to piggyback the female teachers.
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Calvin Tan, 11, and Ma Han Rong, 9, exclaimed that it was fun to see their teachers running in the race with the same energy when they chase after hyperactive children in church. Even though it rained 20 minutes into the event, this did not dampen the spirit of the children. Instead they played games like scissors paper stone challenge and did a mass warm-up exercise to keep fit.
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| PHOTOS: Gay Sen Min |
When the sky finally cleared, the children started to compete in the various races with their supporters actively cheering on their friends. Danam, 10, said, “I really enjoyed myself in this sports day event and I want to attend again next year.” Tan Hwee Ling, a homemaker, gave thumbs up to City Harvest Children’s Church for organizing an event to educate children to exercise and stay healthy. The day ended with the medal prize presentation and the children walked out of the stadium with wide grins on their faces after an exciting day of sports events.
