Last Saturday, we were very excited to finally hold our Sustainable Festive Bazaar once again at our Primary Campus. The unique annual event is always a chance for us to open our doors to the local community to come and enjoy a family day out, with festive shopping, family activities and listen to live performances.
Having been named “Festive Bazaar” in the past, this year marked a new direction as we introduced the importance of sustainability to the event. The new “Sustainable Festive Bazaar” set out to not only be a fantastic day out for all the family, but also look to educate and celebrate sustainability at the school and in the local community.
During the day, the Bazaar housed over 100 local vendors, selling an array of unique gifts and amazing food. From beautiful candles, delicious ice-cream, to even paintings created using coffee. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the amazing creative talent within the community as well as a great chance to pick up some festive presents.
Also making it a unique year for the bazaar, was our partnership with the local charity, Saigonchildren. The non-governmental organization looks to support disadvantaged children access education and as part of the day’s activities, attendees had a chance to raise money for the organization by taking part in our charity raffle.
170 prizes were donated by numerous organizations in the community. Prizes included hotel stays in popular destinations, boat parties, hampers, gift vouchers, and even two bikes. A huge thank you to our amazing raffle sponsors for making it such a success.
In total, 111 million VND was raised to support Saigonchildren, and recently we visited the charity to donate the funds. Specifically, funds raised from the event will support a project that also has sustainability in mind, being used to make much needed renovations in schools in the Mekong Delta.
In addition to raising funds, we also were able to provide another gift for our charity partner, thanks to our Head of School, Kim Green. During the raffle draw, upon winning one of the bicycle prizes, Kim donated the bicycle to Saigonchildren. With many bicycle fundraising programs in place at the charity which are designed to help children get to school, it was a great moment for our partnership with the organization.
The Bazaar was also full of activities for the family. This included a bouncy castle, football on the field, archery, a magic show, and group dance classes. Not to mention, wonderful live performances from a host of musical talent within the ISHCMC Community, including performers from the ISHCMC Performing Arts Academy, ISHCMC Orchestra and ISHCMC’s very own teacher band!
Thank you so much to everyone for attending and making this event such a success! It was fantastic to bring our entire community together and raise some much-needed funds for Saigonchildren. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year. Happy Holidays!
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