"Community Service/Seva at Competitions."(Esp Competition Organizers)

[Saab]

So right now the Sportsmanship thread has developed into a thread on community service/Seva at competitions ranging from soup kitchen work, volunteering at hospitals, and helping with environment to something simple/easy as teaching bhangra to the community or at a university campus. I was personally wondering, after listening to some of the great feedback, if you guys would support the acceptance of an initiative like this at competitions or would trade a mixer for this kind of idea.

For Competition Organizers....I know its all about money some times, but would something like this interest you, especially considering some of the negativity that surrounds competitions these days(fights and etc).

Please respond.

 

[Saab]

SO...just to start things out

-soup-kitchen get together
-workshop with kids in the area
-visit a hospital or a veterans center

Teams could be mixed and plan on going to these separate places, easy-to-do kind of thing.

 

[Chidiya]

I think this is a FANTASTIC idea! But are people really going to trade off a night of partying/drinking/getting high (we all know this is what happens) for a night of seva and working w/ kids? No.

 

[Arjun Barua]

I think this is a FANTASTIC idea! But are people really going to trade off a night of partying/drinking/getting high (we all know this is what happens) for a night of seva and working w/ kids? No.

The afterparty would still be there after the competition. The seva would take place at another point in the weekend (most likely Friday afternoon).

 

[yraparla]

Great idea, but Friday is definitely the only day to do it, and many teams don't get it in till evening/night (although this may be a college team thing since it's usually classes that prevent people from coming Friday afternoon). That's been our experience at Burgh, I dunno, maybe it's different for other comps.

Anyway, point is that it's hard to set up stuff for late evening when people are beat from travel, etc. I think something that requires little of each person, would be good. Each person contributes a half hour throughout the night/Saturday to do something like sign cards or make a video for kids in a local hospital or something.

BIB donates all profit to Homeless Children's Education Fund, so for instance we could bring the kids by (or anything related to kids). It could work on Saturday, take 15min of your time after Stage rehearsal and just keep cycling teams through. Not a big deal to sacrifice a quarter-hour no matter how urgently you need to practice.

I dunno, somebody come up with something creative and practical please, it be really really great if a comp could do this before the season is over

 

[Saab]

What if the competitions managed to figure out how to get all the teams in at a certain point during the day Swi? If you managed this you could put together and maybe have kids sit at the dinner mixer and talk to members of the team. You know, have tables with mixed team members and a couple of kids too so that the team members would talk to the kids and other members. Also its awesome you work with the Homeless Children's Education Fund, so I was wondering if you would think about teams working with kids in the area on a bhangra workshop or even make that separate video for the kids at the place. Even better would be to go to the place and maybe read, interact, or play with kids just to remove them from the hoopla surrounding bhangra and the fun ou could have chilling with the kids.

 

[kinnell]

Myself and a few people from my team (Spartan Bhangra) end up going to a local Cleveland elementary school once two/three months where we teach an afternoon bhangra workshop. Honestly, it's really rewarding and the kids love it. Here are few life-learned lessons which can help you guys if you get a chance to do something like this.

-Use analogies. Like wind-shield wiper step, or birdman step. There's no need to tell them that the step is called dhamaal.

-If you use mixes, listen to them before for any inappropriate parts. For example, gun shots are a huge no-no, especially here in Cleveland where unfortunately crime is huge.

-Split them up by age and teach them in smaller groups. Kids of different ages have different attention spans. I use to be a ski-instructor and this is why they often split up group lessons by age.

-Be firm with the kids, but friendly and energetic. If they want to go play ball or do cartwheels, let them know they an play later. At the same time, if you look like you're having fun, they're gonna want to have fun like you too.

-No matter how cute the kid is, do not lift him/her up. You lift up one kid and they all get into a line waiting for their turn. And they don't take no for an answer, even if they know they almost weigh more than you.

God, I have so many stories.

 

[- Raja -]

since comps tend to have at least 10 teams. you can take one person from each team and form a team of 10 like that. taht way teams can get to know more ppl and it can be fun still aswell. you can goto a local gurdwara where the comp is being held and just do seva during the afternoon. its a good way to feel good and maybe gettin a blessin for your big comp day! not just the gurdwara, you can do SO much more. just an idea!

 

[Chidiya]

That's a great idea Raja but you also have to understand that there are a wide variety of people in this 'Bhangra World' and not all of them may feel comfortable with going to the Gurudawara to do Seva.

 

[- Raja -]

That's a great idea Raja but you also have to understand that there are a wide variety of people in this 'Bhangra World' and not all of them may feel comfortable with going to the Gurudawara to do Seva.

Thats true aswell, its just a start. we can do other ideas aswell. hopefully a comp coming up soon trys something like this..cuz im 100% sure more teams will come out to that comp in the upcoming season.

 

[Arjun Barua]

"Barack Obama has called for Americans to come together for the common good, hours before he is sworn in as the first black president in US history."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/7839074.stm

 

[Dippy]

I really like the idea of doing community service at competitions!! I think that would be such a great way for people to get involved in communities that they don't belong to and get the community to understand that bhangra is more then just a dance form. My only concern with this is that if a comp were to actually implement this into their weekend schedule, most dancers wouldn't want to do it. I know that when teams come to comps. their there for socialize, meet other teams, party, and have a good time. Since they already have the pressure of comp on them I doubt that most of the ppl would want to go to a soup kitchen on a Friday night, when they just arrived from the airport and their tired.
I think its a great idea and I would love to be wrong about my theory. I personally would like to implement this into our system but I want to know if its somthing that the teams truly want to do or if this is just too much to ask for.

leemmmee know what u think ;D

 

[Saab]

What does everyone think, is this do-able, something you would enjoy, or is it something that you would avoid?

Dippy I think you hit the main concern on the head by the way...

 

[Saab]

Thanks to Joe, this topic gets re-addressed. Any other competitions that could possibly implement this? I know a lot of ideas are posted on the NYC beginning stages thread, so if you could re-direct them here that would be awesome. I would like to get a list of ideas together in a week or so and hopefully get a "board" or something to that extent established for future projects. Ive talked to a lot of people personally, but is anyone else interested? How about it?

 

[campy614]

Also, the NYC Competition is having its first board meeting in a week. Any ideas that you want to run by us, please PM me