All good things must come to an end; it’s in your hands to enjoy those little moments while they last.
Traveling and making friends across the globe is indeed such a wonderful rhapsody, which only a few lucky people get to taste. With that in mind, we at RACFOSUOC resolved to make this an advantage to expand horizons and to let everyone explore the world. Project ‘Coast to Coast’ is a novel initiative pioneered by the International Services Avenue of Rotaract Club of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. Carried out in 3 phases, it focused on the aims of giving our club members to bring out their inner wanderlust with a bit of creative penning, and to give an opportunity for individuals fighting silent battles to see the world with hope and build ever lasting friendships across the world. In fact, given the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, the choice of such a timely topic is well thought out. Initially, project ‘Coast to Coast’ kicked off in mid-November. Despite it being a tedious period of time with piles of assignments, deadlines, and whatnot, we all somehow managed to continue with the proceedings of the project. As said above Coast to Coast consisted of three phases, which are namely,
- Hopscotch the Globe
- Coast to Coast- Pen pal Program
- Wings of the Ocean
Hopscotch the Globe was, as you already know, our first and foremost chapter of the whole project. It was a blog competition based on the anecdotes of our very own Rotaractors chronicling their escapades and passions about different countries and cultures. We all were lucky enough to witness the picturesque odysseys of our fellow batch mates’, through their pens. Without a doubt, it was a tough call selecting the best articles, among an equally top-class lot. Nonetheless, Hopscotch the globe concluded on a successful note, with the prizewinner article earning its stripes by marking the highest number of likes in the blog history of RACFOSUOC.
The second phase of ‘Coast to Coast’ was a pen pal program, in which we did attempt to connect people in different corners of the globe through letter exchanging. With the prevailing hazard of Covid-19 majority of the people were suppressed and dispirited, hence this offered them a valuable chance to bond with other individuals who are also battling with untold muddles. We managed to set up pen-pal tie-ins with two international Rotaract clubs, which are the Rotaract Club of Aberdeen and the Rotaract club of DG Vaishnav College. Even amidst nearing examinations, our colleagues contributed very heartily to the project. Letters were exchanged, and I’m pretty sure most of our friends established some beautiful connections with their pen pals as we did with the international Rotaract clubs.
Furthermore, as the second phase was pursued during the month of Santa Clause and endless jingles, a few warming presents were sent to foreign care homes on Christmas day. Hope those brought a little bit of joy to their wrinkled souls.
After two satisfying preceding phases, we opted to round off the project Coast to Coast with a heart- cart topped up with thoughtful handmade crafts. The third phase was named “Wings of the Ocean”, illustrating the sharing and caring nature of humankind, and the objective of bringing a smile to someone’s face. Numerous types of exquisite handcrafts were received from our fellow Rotaractors, and indeed we are more than grateful for their heartwarming contributions. All of the crafts were collected and were sent to children and elders in an Indian care home.
So that’s it! We successfully reached the end of Project Coast to Coast on the 30th of April, 2021. What a ride it had been! Amidst all the hassles, for 6 months the project was continued. Literally, this wouldn’t have been possible without our dearest POC, the backbone of the project. Though it was an uphill journey, we all somehow managed to pull off this project with the communion of everyone. Project Coast to Coast POC was selected and announced on the 31st of October 2020.
In the first place, I’d like to thank IS avenue directors, Oshadha akki and Heshan aiya who were the driving forces of this initiative. Especially, Oshadha akki who always checked up on us from time to time, reminding all of us not to take this as a burden and, to do our academics well without feeling dejected by the pressure. She was more like a boost of energy for us. Limini akki was the project coordinator of Coast to Coast, and I think everyone will agree with me if I say that she guided us all through these six months with her unwavering resilience. Honestly, she is the most attentive yet undisturbed project chairperson I’ve ever encountered. Being editors, myself, Zainab and Nivi akki always interacted with her regarding the content of the project. She always kept tabs on us and never failed to remind us about a due caption or a post.
IT coordinators for Coast to Coast were Charya and Manishka; the behind-the-scenes team of creating graphic posts and videos of the three phases. Thanuj was also a part of the IT team, but owing to the immense workload with other ongoing projects, he stepped down from the POC. Moving on to our two team coordinators, Rashmi and Lakshan were like wingmen of Limini akki, prompting about a sudden caption or a letter even at some ungodly hours. Thanks to our PR coordinator Dulakshana, we were able to carry on with all three phases of CTC smoothly. Furthermore, Finance coordinators Buddhima and Tanya aided us by playing a significant role throughout the whole project, particularly in Wings of the Ocean. Last but not least, I would like to thank our secretary, Damindri akki for nurturing us with her amazing ideas and for contributing to Hopscotch the Globe with a winner article.
This is only a brief sum-up of the execution of our project. Regardless of the tough timeline, we managed to wind up Project Coast to Coast with the tremendous assistance of our club members. Kudos to everyone out there who helped and took part by all means possible!
By Rtr. Nishakya Liyanarachchi
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