Hundreds of kids kicked off their their school holidays with a special excursion.
Contributed By Esther She
Little explorers at the Zoo. CN PHOTO: Jeremy Ong.
What better to celebrate the end of school term than a wild time… at the Zoo?
To mark the start of the school holidays, the Children Church ministry from City Harvest Church organized a special outing to the Singapore Zoo for some 1,000 children, workers and parents.
The excited little ones were all smiles on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 19 as they alighted from the coaches outside the entrance to the zoo where they were divided into groups of 14 to make the tour easy to facilitate.
The minute the children stepped beyond the turnstile, squeals of enthusiasm and exclamations sounded out as the groups strolled past the different enclosures: “So cute!” “I can’t see, what animal is that?”. The children were thrilled by how close they could get to some of the animals; one kid was spotted beckoning an elusive primate, “Come here, monkey!”
The energy and joy that emanated from the children did not lessen throughout the trip. In fact, their curiosity and keenness to discover more things only served to encourage the CCH ministry volunteers, who worked tirelessly to ensure the children had a good time. Throughout the event, these wonderful workers happily switched in between their roles as tour guide, photographer and “traffic warden” to ease crowd congestion.
The tour ended two hours later, and to wrap up, the various groups gathered at the Shaw Foundation Amphitheatre for a delightful 20-minute animal show. Despite their tiredness, the children happily chatted with each another.
Said 7-year-old Darrshan, “It was tiring but fun! I love the show the most. The animals were very cute.”
For Madam Lin, 39, a parent, the outing was a great opportunity to bond with her child. She said, “I think the teachers put in a lot of effort to meet everyone’s needs. It’s not easy and I applaude them [for their hard work]!”
Carolyn Ernest, a CCH volunteer, said, “The event was a success and the kids enjoyed themselves a lot. [I am glad that] through this activity, the children learned to show love and kindness to their friends.”
This outing took a whole month of planning by the ministry leaders and volunteers, who looked into every logistical detail to ensure everything would go according to plan. Judging from the happy responses of the children, it was an effort worth putting in.
