“HAVE YOU EVER STOOD IN THE SUN FOR 8 HOURS AND STILL FELT CHILLS AND GOOSEBUMPS THE WHOLE TIME?”
It is a real feeling, and very difficult to describe. I am sure my wonderful teammates also felt it at the secondhand clothing sharing festival and fundraiser for children with leukemia, Light One 4 in Saigon on 25/01. We will tell you just how wonderful that feeling was!
More than 10 days before the event, the six of us—most of whom had only met for the first time at ĐHKN 2018—sat down to identify the core values of our Light Charity Sài Gòn team: “Beautiful – Effective – Up to Standard.” We decided to hold the used-clothing sharing day just before Lunar New Year so that workers, vulnerable people, and young patients could enjoy a fuller, happier Lunar New Year.
At year-end, everyone is very busy, but we worked as hard as possible to speed up preparations so the event could take place on schedule, before workers boarded buses home for Lunar New Year. In just under a week, the Team and volunteers sorted 12.000+ garments. Everything was ready for sharing day.
To our surprise, the vacant area in front of Tân Thuận Export Processing Zone in District 7, where previous Light One events had taken place, was now hosting a Lunar New Year fair. That left us with nowhere to carry out our team’s plan. We searched everywhere for a location, but it seemed there was nowhere more suitable than that spot.
One day before the deadline, we still had no venue.
It was the end of the year: everyone was busy with work, and students were taking their final exams. One day before the deadline, only 7 people could participate, including our team. We had no idea where to find a large group of volunteers like those at previous Light One events—people who could help us lift and transport the items (more than 2 tons of used clothing in storage) and sell them to more than 6,000 workers at the export processing zone, if we could find a venue.
We met and reluctantly canceled this plan, postponing it until after Lunar New Year. It felt sad—very sad, everyone!
None of us felt at ease; we were all restless. We felt so sad that the plan had to be canceled at the last minute, after so much effort and so many hopes. BUT we did not stop—we kept trying every possible way.
At 9:00 that evening, we found a location. Thanks to good fortune, friends, and wonderful connections, we could carry out our team’s plan at Linh Trung 1 Export Processing Zone. There were still many issues, and we were unfamiliar with the site, so at 10:30 that night we had to survey it once more to be sure. After the survey, the team decided: “Let’s do it!” But where could we find volunteers to carry out the plan now? The whole team agreed to contact as many people as possible that night: “We’ll work with however many we can get!”
The next morning, Oh My Buddha, more than 25 wonderful people on this planet appeared. A powerful surge of energy ran through my body, and I began to feel “chills and goosebumps.”
We threw ourselves into the work with positive energy and love, with the burning spirit of Yuppies, and with all our enthusiasm for “giving” to “Make Vietnam A Better Place To Live.” Despite nearly 8 hours under the blazing sun, everyone was beaming, with smiles always on their lips. Oh, what an incredible feeling! Selling clothes in the scorching heat, rushing back and forth, and sweating profusely—yet why did I keep getting chills and goosebumps? That is the best I can do to describe this wonderful feeling. It was so unusual!
When darkness had fully fallen and all the workers had left, we sat together and ate loving bowls of pho donated by benefactors. Those wonderful people still wore smiles, their eyes sparkling with happiness over truly meaningful deeds and sincere love shared, and over making Lunar New Year a little fuller and happier for workers, disadvantaged people, and especially children with leukemia. Seeing everyone happy, we once again felt “goosebumps of joy”!
2 days have passed, but that feeling of exhilaration still lingers in me and all my wonderful teammates. Although we know the plan was not completed as well as it could have been, that our donated clothing did not reach more people, and that we did not raise much money, we still feel some happiness because we gave it our all. Although there were many gaps in our execution and many lessons to learn and improvements to make, we are also quite pleased with a “first” that our team managed to carry out:
– Thank you, Nguyễn Hữu Toàn, for creating the designs, printing them beautifully, laminating them for long-term use, and elevating the value of the clothes of love.
– Thank you, Hua Phuc, for cutting and welding the standee frames yourself so they can stand firmly in open, windy areas. In particular, making them once to use “forever” will save the Fund substantial costs in the future.
– Thank you, Hồng Hồng, for doing such a wonderful job in your “first” communications role. You dared to do LightOne's first volunteer-recruitment livestream, with your “heart nearly jumping out of your chest.” And it was also the first time you dared sneak away from your boss and your work to “get involved in other people's business.”
– For the first time, we used plastic baskets to sort secondhand clothes, and then used those baskets to sell them, just like “in a shop.” “How you give matters more than what you give,” after all. Thank you to Đào Thuý An for the idea.
– For the first time in LightOne's history, we used no plastic bags, to protect the environment. Thank you to everyone for supporting this and doing it so smoothly, despite having no previous experience…
– Upon first learning about Light Charity, Ms. Lương Anh Thư jumped straight in and became an official member, full of energy and truly wonderful. Thank you.
– For the first time, Light One has a foreign Lighter, who generously lent us his house as a storage warehouse and also volunteered to transport items and sell them alongside everyone. Thank you, Nick, my wonderful brother.
– With the power to spread good things and “MAKE VIETNAM A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE,” and with help from Nguyễn Huy Hoàng, Light One Saigon will appear on VOV Traffic Radio for the first time, and possibly in a news item in Công An Newspaper.
– And…
😍 With impressive results, 3600+ were shared. LIGHT CHARITY, THE 4TH LIGHT ONE SAIGON, our team:
🤗 Our deepest thanks to the benefactors and donors who contributed items to the program.
🤗 Our sincere thanks to the sponsors who raised funds directly for the Giấc Mơ Đôi Chân Thiên Thần Fund.
🤗 Our sincere thanks to the sponsors who provided collection points and storage warehouses.
🤗 Our sincere thanks to everyone who came to buy items.
🤗 Once again, thank you to everyone, our wonderful teammates, and the more than 25 Lighters and Mahaiers who helped organize the program from beginning to end.
YOU ARE ALL OUTSTANDING AND AMAZING!
Let us stay together for a long time on this wonderful mission to “Make Vietnam A Better Place To Live.”
Once again, on behalf of all disadvantaged people and the children with leukemia, we sincerely thank everyone.
WISHING EVERYONE ENDLESS ENERGY AND HAPPINESS!
#byLighterTranAnhTuan