CocoLemon Peeps Outreach in Rodriguez, Rizal

Outreach in Rodriguez, Rizal

Introduction

Hello friends! I’m going to share with you the outreach program that we just had last Saturday, May 18th, 2019 in Brgy. Mascap, Rodriguez, Rizal. Brgy. Mascap is known as the registration site for mountains such as Mt. Ayaas, Mt. Sipit Ulang, and Mt. Oro. So last January 2017, two years ago, my two friends and I went to Mt. Sipit Ulang to go hiking. My two friends were newbie hikers at that time so I decided to hike in this mountain because it is suitable for newbies. By then we were given lady guides at that time named Teacher Jhoy and her sister and niece.

Backstory

Teacher Jhoy is a preschool teacher so I had this vision that one day we would be initiating an outreach program in this place and Teacher Jhoy would be our point of contact to coordinate with the barangay and enlist her students as the beneficiaries of the outreach program. That year 2017, I was praying and asking friends to join me in my outreach initiative, especially my friends from the church. But since almost all of them were busy at that time, I got dismayed and asked God if truly this vision was really from Him. So come 2018, I tried inviting friends again but the same reason last year, they were all busy. I honestly got dismayed because I thought that this would not take place.

The Birth of CocoLemon Peeps

Come 2019, I invited another set of friends to join me in DIY hikes this year that I organised and so far these friends of mine have been consistently hiking with me for the past couple of months (Mt. Batolusong, Mt. Mapalad, and Mt. Lubog). So we came up with the idea of creating our own hike group called CocoLemon Peeps. You might wonder why on earth CocoLemon Peeps? “Where the heck did yah get that name?” You might ask 😀 Initially, our name was supposed to be CocoMelon. CocoMelon is a YouTube channel that contains Nursery Rhymes and baby songs.

CoCoMelon Nursery Rhymes

Because almost all of us are titas (Auntie) and titos (Uncle) of Manila, our nephews and nieces (infants/toddlers) are hooked on CocoMelon nursery rhymes.

Then one of our friends, Cyrielle, suggested that we should change from CocoMelon to CocoLemon to avoid copyright issues (charot). Thus, we stuck with CocoLemon Peeps and had our logo designed by an expert graphic designer, R-Jhay. We also decided to create our own t-shirts. Having said that, all was good and we were ready to hike more mountains wearing our CocoLemon Peeps t-shirts. (badge of honour! :D)

Outreach Initiative

One day, I casually just sent a message in our Viber group chat regarding the outreach initiative that I had been praying about. Surprisingly, my friends said yes! Praise God! I realised that day that finally God would allow this outreach program to happen after two years of praying persistently God, at last, answered this prayer. Another realisation of mine was that if it’s God’s will, then it will definitely be done according to His perfect timing. Additionally, I could not do this great task on my own and I would be needing help from other people who shared the same vision that I had.

Vision and Purpose

The vision we had for this outreach was to give school supplies and snacks to kids (students of Teacher Jhoy), share the Gospel of Christ not just with the kids but also with their parents by giving them foldable pamaypay with CocoLemon Peeps logo and Bible verse.

To pull this off, we created an event on our Facebook page and opened it for the public so people could volunteer to help out or give financially. We were raising around Php 5,000.00 to 7,000.00 for fifty (50) preschoolers and guess what? God exceeded that amount! Praise God for the generosity of donors/sponsors.

Preparations and Delegation of Tasks

We got busy with the preparations and delegation of tasks. Initially, I created a Trello board with a checklist of the things we needed to consider such as roles/assignments, logistics, program flow and activities. I shared the list with them. Then we decided to take on items on the checklist. We bought school supplies and snacks for the kids and volunteers, we did the repacking, printing of our banner, getting the list of all kids, coordinating with Teacher Jhoy and friends, etc. It was tiring but fun! We thought that we were doing all of these for the greater glory of God 🙂

When May 18th came, we were all excited for the big event. We left the meeting place at 6 AM and arrived at the venue at 7 AM. Just in time 🙂 As expected, we were greeted by Teacher Jhoy and she introduced us to the Brgy. Captain. Since the Captain was about to go, we handed the certificate of appreciation to him.

After that, we went straight to the covered court to prepare the things we need to do. Name tags were given to each volunteer. Each volunteer has an assignment. There were two volunteers for registration of kids, two head ushers, there were teachers who would share a Bible story and facilitate the games for kids, others were assigned to help the kids get situated and keep the event in order and also people who would distribute food and school supplies to kids and give souvenirs to parents and other onlookers. We also made sure that there would be no rubbish inside the venue.

Anyway, to make the story short, it was a success and everyone had takeaways from the event. After the event proper, we had a closing huddle to hear from one another and learn from their insights. I would really love to extend my gratitude to volunteers and donors who generously lent their precious time and money to make this event come to fruition. Indeed, we really pulled this thing off collaboratively.

Fun-Filled Event

Not to mention, we also played “Agawan Panyo” 😀 Unfortunately, I forgot to record a video of our game 😀 Anyway, please watch our video below.

We hope next time, you will join us in another outreach of ours in the future 🙂 Drop me a line and I will get back to you shortly 🙂