echo Reported by Wen Qi and Cheng Joan
Edited by Fajar binti Benjamin
To kick-start the joyous month of April, Sunway Peer Counselling Volunteers (PCV) organized the event, Positive Me +++ in hopes of cultivating awareness of how important “positivity” is as well as instilling an optimistic attitude among the students around campus. The entire event was held in the Art Gallery in Sunway University.
To open the event, the esteemed president of PCV, Jayashan A/L Chinatamy, also known as Jay, gave a speech wherein he explained that the whole event was centred around mental health aspects. The well-prepared station games were PCV’s attempt to encourage positivity as the games symbolized the keys to achieve positivity.
There were a total of six stations wherein each station had a different game, with each of them representing different moral values. To start off the games, a friendly facilitator brought us to Station 1.
Station 1 was ‘Positive Friends’ wherein the participants worked in pairs and passed a ping pong ball through a cardboard maze by blowing it to the goal. However, they could not allow the ball to slip off the edge of the table! Each session was only 2 minutes and the participants were required to finish within that time limit. After the game, the facilitator in charge explained to us that the ping pong ball actually represented our goals and the cardboard represented the hurdles and hardships faced in life. Therefore, he concluded that the moral behind this game was to surround ourselves with positive friends who can help us to achieve our goal and overcome problems in order to move forward. Overall, we found the game to be quite challenging and exciting as we had to work together closely to reach the goal.
The facilitator then led us to Station 2 which was called ‘Positive Balls’. It was an individual game and we observed that there was a plate with white and orange ping pong balls in it. Similar to the previous game, participants were given 2 minutes to blow out all the orange coloured balls only. As revealed by the facilitator, the white balls represented the positive thoughts and the orange balls represented the negative thoughts in our daily lives. Hence, she explained that we have to take out all of the negative thoughts that made us feel small and keep the positive thoughts that can encourage us to do better.
After that, Station 3 was slightly different and mysterious compared to the other stations because we were asked to go into a dark room. Then, the facilitator asked us a series of questions which led to the question “Who do you think is the most important person to you?” After we answered, a mirror was revealed and the facilitator explained that the most important person should be ourselves because at the end of the day loving yourself is the basis of positivity.
Later on, we went to Station 4 which was a Body Health Analysis that was in cooperation with Sunway Sports Council to get our health check-ups. The president explained that this was included in this event because he believed that taking good care of our own health is a key factor to achieve a positive mind-set. Other participants reviewed that they found this station helpful as they picked up a couple of useful health tips from the facilitator.
Moving on, Station 5 was ‘Mini Scatter Hunt’ where participants had to use the clues from a glass jar to find the books that were hidden around the Art Gallery. This game was particularly interesting because we had to connect the clues with books such as “Tuesday with Morrie”, “For One More Day” by Mitch Albom and “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. As revealed by the facilitator, the purpose of this station was to emphasize that books are mental food to the brain and it is important to always remember to nourish the brain with knowledge.
Last but not least, Station 6 was a positivity test where participants had to answer 10 situational questions in order to find out their own level of positivity and were also encouraged to write some words of encouragement on coloured paper and paste it on the cardboard tree to spread more positivity to others.
Regarding set up, PCV President Jay stated that putting together each individual station game was a bit challenging, but that his team worked together and pulled through. It so happens that the organising committee actually would have preferred utilizing a smaller room as the station games didn’t take up much space. However, all was fine and well when they decorated the vast Art Gallery with numerous fairy lights to enhance the overall atmosphere.
The set up process (including the brainstorming session) all took about two weeks but it was worth it as the participants had a great time. The vast majority of participants enjoyed station 3 as it was reflective, heart-warming and it helped many to grasp a better sense of themselves as well as understand the importance of self-love. Some honourable mentions were station 4 and 6 as they were quite informative.
Participants enjoyed the event as a whole as they found the ambiance to be generally calming and fun due to the great song choice ranging from classic tunes such as “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley to modern pop hits, i.e. “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
The prizes the event offered also factored in to the satisfaction of the participants as they included a variety of cool trinkets from handmade stress balls to snickers and on the more attractive side, a Starbucks Card and KFC vouchers.
In terms of improvement, one of the participants suggested that PCV should increase the publicity of the event. However, she felt that this wasn’t entirely a setback as the whole event felt more intimate without a large crowd.
Overall the event was successful. If there was a single world to describe the event as a whole, it would be light-hearted. Kudos to PCV for making such a memorable event.
