Coming up to ChingChuan again so soon after the last two workshops was a novel experience. The 2-3 hour drive is always tiring but once you arrive, always worth it. We had a bit of a delay but began moving desks upstairs to set up for the class. Two new volunteers joined us this time!
Teacher Paula was amazing for the course was amazing. I didn’t realize I had given her 4 stations to be in charge of that day (soooo sorry)! She had to man the vegan cupcake, shift to Christmas cards (we had kids draw themselves), create clay magnets, and then back to creation of frosting and decoration. All stuffed within 3-4 hours.
We had the kids sit in front of a wonderful donated oven from Chieni while Teacher Paula took on volunteers to help her pour in ingredients. Some of the children were very shy but got over this quickly, soon licking their fingers smeared with chocolate vegan cupcake batter. For the card, Teacher Ichi had seen this clip online and suggested that we could create a massive “stairs” Christmas Card. Each child would draw themselves, cut it out, and paste their mini-self to the steps.
This task was quickly completed and we moved onto creating magnets. Christmas cards would only be taken out once in awhile but I figured JiaXin might like to have magnets made by a few of the kids on her fridge visible every day so she can visibly see and be reminded of what joy she has brought to others. My favorite time of the day was seeing one of the kids which I’ve mentally “adopted” really progress and enjoy the workshop, create a few cutouts of me, then ask us when we would be back to visit him.
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- Teacher Paula creating vegan cupcakes (2012 James Teng)
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- Staircase
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- With Badcore and Angela
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- Magnet time with Teacher Paula!
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- Vegan Cupcakes
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- snack!
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- Chocolate batter@ Photo courtesy James Teng
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- Photo courtesy James Teng
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- Photo courtesy James Teng
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- Volunteer August
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- Volunteer Rippppper
BACKGROUND:
Date: 12/23/2012
Summary: JiaXin is a generous warm-hearted little girl who was adopted from Taiwan and is now living in Canada. By a “chance” email a few weeks back JiaXin’s father contacted me and asked me to fulfill a wish for his little girl. Feeling she never celebrated Christmas when she was in Taiwan, she wanted to be able to provide gifts to those who would gain the most from a little warmth during this season.
Christmas is not only about gifts but spending time together so in addition to gifting on December 23rd, we also invited the children of ChingChuan to spend some time with us to bake vegan Christmas cupcakes and make magnets!
Purpose: Christmas is not a gifting holiday but a season for thanks and spend time together.
Children Will Learn: Cupcakes can be vegan and delicious!
Lead Teachers: Paula Perry
Volunteers: James Teng, Ripper Tsou, Badcore Pan, Angela Lin, August Jerome Armbrister
Benefactor: JiaXin Rosenberg
Tasks: Work with the kids to create vegan chocolate cupcakes, Christmas Thank You Cards, and magnets.
Snack: Pita with salsa and cheese, chips with salsa, apple and cheese slices, hot chocolate, croissants, vegan chocolate cupcakes with frosting made by the children.
Location Taoshan Youth Cultural Center
Event Callout
