My little kingdom for today. Chaperoned my kids as they volunteered with Team Nila as human resources for a day at the Heartland Festival here in Woodlands Sports Centre. It's a sports-based carnival for the residents of the surrounding public housing neighbourhood, with lots of games, and an on-going performance within the white tentage in the upper middle of the photo. As I signed as a volunteer myself, I opted to run this trampoline fitness section, and play by ear from there. I initially thought I would be a carnival barker and draw in the crowd, but the job entailed crowd control instead with a never-ending line of eager children and their parents all waiting for their turn at bouncing along to the instructor's directions.
I really take my hat off to the instructor (I never asked her name) who bounced almost non-stop, leading batch after batch of mostly kids, although some adults also gamely bounced along to her improvised 5-minute set. Initially she was told that her set would be 15 minutes each, with breaks in between sets, but the young oysters came "thick and fast... and more, and more, and more". So she bounced from about 1630-2000 with only one short bio and hydration break. I had the comparatively easier job of keeping the lines orderly, ushering people to vacant trampolines, and adjusting handle-bar heights as appropriate. And I had 3 little girls (Alicia, Clarice and Yuki) helping me with crowd control and stamping of the participants' redemption coupons. Totally grateful for everyone helping out at my station.
The people were patient and cooperative as well, with not a Karen among them. The kids were kids, but they listened to safety instructions, and most did their best to follow the instructor. Some repeat customers even remembered the moves on their second and subsequent mini-sessions. No one protested the brevity of each session, and everyone seemed to understand that other people needed a turn too. I've done some other kinds of volunteer work that have caused me silent freak outs and panic attacks, but today's session was pleasant and even fun.
