More Than Just Christmas: A Festival of Hope Led by Change-Making Oakridgers

Oakridge International School, Mohali celebrated the Christmas Wonderland – A Carnival that sleighs on Saturday, 24 December 2022 with full fun and frolic. The carnival was a celebration of the season’s joy and hope that the community promises to deliver and wishes to attain.  

‘Hope’ has transformed the lives of millions of people since the inception of mankind. In our lives, we might have come across several stories of inspirational individuals making impossible things possible at the cost of perseverance, resilience and consistency while there are billions of untold stories of success that came to fruition because of hope. Here at Oakridge, we believe Hope is the guiding light to all our aspirations and we want our young learners to get in touch with the community to understand what gives them Hope. 

Conjoining with the theme of Festival of HOPE – the initiative of International Baccalaureate, the carnival’s special attraction was the reflection counter of ‘Festival of HOPE’ where the parent community had a chance to voice what ‘hope’ means to them, and a local community issue that needed urgent attention and addressal. This initiated the process of giving ‘Agency’ to the community to bring the meaningful change, and to the students to think about the throbbing issues that need immediate action.  

Furthermore, the donation counter- ‘Humanity for HOPE’, planter sale- ‘Plant for HOPE’ and bake sale counter- ‘Bake for HOPE’ helped in raising funds in cash and kind for the disadvantaged and deprived. The inventiveness brought the student community closer to taking meaningful and creative Action to serve the community. 

Grade 6 CAIE students, Rehan, Aryaveer, Shauryaveer, Sahejveer, Kion and Jaskaran set up a self-contributed and self-led CAS stall independently where the students and parent enjoyed hot chocolates, hot cup noodles and other delights. This reflected the Agency that the students are capable of, and exercise at Oakridge. Students exemplified the use of creative thinking to boost the fundraiser through ‘Take the spice challenge’, ‘Combo challenge’, ‘Take a combo to get free delights’ and many other strategies. 

The school buzzed in Christmas theme of red and white, with cheerful faces of the children and parent community. Alluring and inviting stalls hooked the attention of the visitors where the children and parents enjoyed games like Pinning the nose of Rudolph, Ring toss, Tambola, Dart and Math games etc. Tattoo station performed by the students and Santa ride were the highlights of the day. The visitors relished the delectable food stalls with delights such as dosa, corns, and cotton candies. 

As they celebrated gala, bringing delight in the joyous winter carnival, concluded with meaningful and fun actions before closing for the winter break, the principal Ms. Suman Kalra said that “Christmas is a time to introspect and generate kindness, love, and affection for the fellow beings. Let’s make this world a better place to live!”

Now our passionate and caring learners are working towards analysing the data gathered and will have a strategic approach towards prioritizing and resolving the issues of the community. Through this initiative, our agentic learners have demonstrated international mindedness and have chose to become responsible problem solvers for their society. #festivalofhope