Building a Better Tomorrow for children through Play !
It’s the beginning of the New Year which involves reflection
and creating action plans to gear up for a better year ahead. Almost every
conversation and action during the month of January is about putting in more efforts, new resolutions,
being more proactive and working harder to build a better world for ourselves and others.
Within this reinvigorating mood of January, The Tata Mumbai
Marathon (TMM) was a wonderful opportunity for Toybank to be a part of. Especially
for non-profits, TMM it's a great platform to raise support for its cause,
whether in-kind or monetary means. It’s one of the largest platforms to engage
its employees, volunteers and various other supporters in bringing play to the
public eye and initiating conversations through a playful, innovative and
meaningful rally. The 5.9 km Dream Run, which 50+ Toybankers participated in, was indeed a
powerful walk with a large number of people cheering out slogans and wearing
colorful costumes about the causes closest to their heart.
"Build tomorrow, build today. Let’s all play away!"
This wonderful slogan, coined by the Toybank team perfectly resonated
with the theme of TMM 2019 – Better Tommorow. This theme also aligned with our
core intervention in the early years of children to ensure a better perspective
towards life in the future. It was therefore, an exciting time for Toybank to
meaningfully interact with all of its supporters.
On 20th March 2019, all Toybankers assembled early morning near
Metro Cinema to collect their props and costumes, before we could head to the
start line at Azad Maidan. We had a small briefing with everyone on how to stay
motivated, healthy and have a good time at the Dream Run.
The Dream Run is a
colorful and cheerful carnival that is uplifted not only by the life size
costumes but the spirit of unity that’s much needed to drive social change. Our
marvelous Toybankers themselves wore life-size board-game themed costumes and, along
with the smiles on their faces and happiness in their bodies, they drew
everyone’s attention to the Power of Play.
To bring this event to fruition, our team worked tirelessly, two
to three months before time. Our preparations involved sensitizing our student
volunteers about the importance of giving back to the world through active
engagement and fundraising and what their key role at the TMM would be.
Lots of
volunteers came over the weekend to create the costume and share in their
creative ideas to represent the power of play creatively.
The preparation for the marathon and the on-day
participation and enthusiasm, unfolded invaluable skills, talents and potential
that each of us have to create a #BetterTomorrow!
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