Written by Timothy Nguyen After wishing my dad a good day at work, I grabbed my tea and backpack, and got myself out of the car onto the overcast, humid, bustling parking lot of Fashion Square mall. I arrived at the festival at around 8:40 AM, about 20 minutes earlier than my set time of 9 AM, but regardless of my early arrival, I found myself getting a headstart on the work of the day. In one fell swoop I shotgunned my tea, threw my backpack to the vendor check-in desk, strapped on my fanny-pack, and began my long day ahead. After helping carrying the initial wave of vendors goods, tables, friers and other commodities, I finally remembered to go sign in, turning my 20 minutes early, into 10 minutes late. After I took the time to finally clock in, I rushed back to my job of Vendor check-in, my backpack still at the base of the table thankfully, sat down, pull out some lychee jellies I had packed the day before and took a quick shot of 1, whilst offering them to the team working at vendor-check in. Managing the check in and arrival of vendors is a vigorous job, as the vendors relentlessly arrive with legions of wagons, cars, vans, trucks, both of the moving and pick up variety, filled with their precious cargo of food, electronics, cosmetics, clothing, jewellery and other commodities they planned to sell or exhibit during this festival. Wave after Wave, Horde after Horde of vendors rushing in, pounding us with questions, forms and requests of volunteers. The vendor check-in team, consisting of Incharges Me and Alex De Guzman, along with the ardent and diligent volunteers: Rohan Savalani, Sandy Xia and Takkai Wong, with the aid of a man named Roy and 2 others that I unfortunately did not get the name of, stood our ground well against the hundreds of vendors coming at us. The waves of vendors came in ready to rock while we, were ready to roll, and hastily guided them to their spots and made last minute changes and arrangements, while still maintaining REACH’s trademark hospitality and surprising maturity that many have come to love and embrace. Even with spots of disputing and confused vendors, the check-in process was a vigorous task but successful nonetheless, with all the vendors being set-up and ready to go for phase 2 of the day: The Festival. Me and Alex sent the team off one by one to go on their breaks, as the arriving vendors grinded to a halt, eventually leaving me sitting at our table. I cleaned up our table, laden with pens, markers, boards, maps, forms and lists amongst other things, and before I got my lunch for the day I took one last round and ensured that all vendor’s needs were met, and unfortunately found a problem. The gigantic Orlando Korean Cultural Center booth, with their cooking stations, televisions, speakers and other electronics had blown out their plug! We quickly told them to move locations, first to the end of the hallway, and had fully set up their larger cooking section only for that socket to die out as well! We had told them to move 2 times more, the power going out over and over and over, again and again again! I must have carried jars of Kimchi and Korean Radish (Mu or 무) so many times that I must have gained the smell of the two mixed together. Eventually we settled on placing different sections of the cooking sections around the festival which eventually worked out for them. The disgruntled volunteers with OKCC eventually found themselves dealing with the same problem, or rather blessing everyone else has been, swarms of guests. After dealing with that headache, I finally was able to take my break and eat my lunch, graciously provided to us by Thai Island. Alex, Sandy and I ate together, eating delicious curry chicken and pad thai. We found ourselves in a grace period, a grace period where falling asleep seemed to be a very attractive option. But alas, we knew that falling asleep would be an unwise decision, and instead relaxed before being separated off into different jobs for the day.
0 Comments
On February 11, 2017, the 6th Annual Dragon Parade Lunar New Year Festival occurred at Orlando Fashion Square Mall. As always, many volunteers showed up from multiple high schools and helped with leading REACH during the parade. REACH was able to help celebrate the Year of the Rooster and we look forward for the next parade! The event featured ethnic food, cultural performances and vendors.
On the same day of the Annual Asian Cultural EXPO, October 15, 2016, the Walgreens Orlando International Dragon Boat Festival took place at Turkey Lake in Bill Frederick Park. REACH was able to take first place in the Premier Mixed D Consolation Final with the time of 02:35:33! Click on the title for more photos. Thanks to our captain, Corey Hsiao, our co-captains, Anthony Chung and Sarah Joe, and our drummer, Alice Fu! See the video below to watch the final race! For more photos, click here. On October 15, 2016, Asia Trend held the Asia Trend Asian Cultural EXPO at Turkey Lake. The expo included various traditional performances from many cultures such as dragon dance, lion dance, Chinese instruments, Taiko drumming and dances from all around Asia. REACH had a great amount of volunteers whom were able to manage the stage and the REACH booth during the festival. For more photos, click here.
Lunar New Year is the most celebrated holiday in East Asia. On February 14th, 2016, REACH helped welcome in the Year of the Monkey by taking part in the Central Florida Dragon Parade, as well as volunteering in the Lunar New Year Festival! All of our officers and members had a great time, and we hope to see you next year! For an article about the event, click here.
Throughout November and December, REACH members collected toy donations from Winter Park, Cypress Creek, University, Lake Nona, Olympia, Freedom, Dr. Philips, and Lake Mary high schools. Together, REACH collected 984 toys and donated them to Harbor House and Frontline Outreach! Visit here for pictures and an article from AsiaTrend!
|
Connect with REACH on social media!Check out our other blog posts!
January 2019
|