On Sunday, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Roslyn Branch members helped out at the Mid Autumn Festival Celebrations.
At 5 o’clock, the volunteers arrived to prepare for the celebration. By then, there were few people around so we set up the tables into two halves- the mooncake section and the lantern-making section.
Volunteers in each section worked dedicatedly at their task to prepare for the arrival of people. In the mooncake section, volunteers unboxed the mooncakes and cut them into eighth to be distributed amongst the people attending the celebration. At first, we cut them into fourths, however, it soon became clear that we would run out and we devised a second plan. After cutting the mooncakes, we distributed them onto plates and placed a fork on each plate for the people to take. We had to make sure each person only took one serving to ensure there would be enough for everyone and plated more as soon as they were gone. We also looked out for the health concerns of the people by asking for allergies. One problem we quickly ran into was the lack of plates or utensils. Most people didn’t mind not having a utensil, but plates were a must-need. We started using mooncake containers, cut plates up into small pieces, and even used paper towels that we borrowed from the temporary tattoo booth.
The lantern-making section was busy as well. We distributed lantern ‘walls’, bases, and lights for those who wanted to make them and even gave them the option to decorate them with sharpies. We had to keep track of the sharpies to make sure none of them took it after they decorated since the booth was so popular people had to decorate on the lawn. We taught them how to make the lanterns after they finished decorating and pointed them in the direction of the lake if they wanted to release it. The booth was so popular it became overran with people and supplies diminished almost instantly. Luckily for us, some members of the Roslyn branch asked around and managed to secure more materials from booths that had less people than ours.
The Mid Autumn Festival is a long-lasting tradition of China and we hope to educate and spread diverse cultures through partaking in this event. It’s enlightening to see people of different ethnicities and races walk around the boosts, try traditional foods, and learn how to make lanterns. And while there may be challenges, we thought critically and overcame them as a team.
Members who participated includes:
Yang Amy Wu (4 hours), Mingyao Xu (4 hours), Chloe Wu (4 hours), Elyse Jin (4 hours), Charlene Fu (4 hours), Vincent Lin (4 hours), Maxim Li (4 hours), Zihan Wang (4 hours), and Hunter Chen.
