Fun and Laughter at Take Your Student To Lunch 2020

Last Sunday, Shanghai Sunrise hosted its first student-sponsor event in 2020. “Take your Student to Lunch” offered sponsors and students a chance to catch up with each other during these special times. A total of 108 sponsors and students joined this event full of laughter.Meeting our students in person, hearing their stories about family and themselves, and seeing firsthand the difference that the support of our community is making in their lives.Last Sunday, Shanghai Sunrise hosted its first student-sponsor event in 2020. “Take your Student to Lunch” offered sponsors and students a chance to catch up with each other during these special times. A total of 108 sponsors and students joined this event full of laughter.Meeting our students in person, hearing their stories about family and themselves, and seeing firsthand the difference that the support of our community is making in their lives.

Our Executive Director, Yulia Yan, kicked off the day by sharing some good news: Several of our sponsored students won national and municipal awards last semester. We are so proud of these achievements, especially given that schools were closed for months and other Covid-19-related difficulties.

More good news followed: Our venue sponsor, Hongqiao Jin Jiang Hotel, handed us a check for over 20,000 RMB - money that had been raised by the employees. Their General Manager, Maximilian Pleyer, expressed their delight to host this special event and stressed their long-term commitment to support education. We sincerely thank Hongqiao Jin Jiang Hotel for both their generous donation and for providing us with a beautiful location including a delicious lunch buffet.

Shanghai Sunrise Chair, Frances O’Rourke, thanked all volunteers and board members for their commitment to our organization. None of our activities – raising funds, running the student programs and organizing events such as this one - would be possible without their hard work and dedication.

In addition to having lunch together, the aim of this event was to give students and sponsors plenty of room to bond over fun activities and conversation.

· We started with an ice-breaking game during which participants had to skip count as a team in Chinese. This turned out to be more difficult than expected for some.

· After lunch, Shanghai Sunrise Student, Huang Yang, performed a song in front of a receptive audience, expressing her gratitude through her singing.

· Later that day, participants drew portraits of each other on paper fans. We saw so many different styles of drawing, from classic realism over impressionism to abstractionism. Everyone had a good laugh and went home with a unique souvenir made with love.

· The highlight of the event was definitely the Spaghetti-and-Marshmallow Tower Challenge. Using only these two materials, the winning team managed to build a tower reaching an impressive 124 centimeters in just 20 minutes.

The entire Shanghai Sunrise team is glad everyone had such a great time and looks forward to the next occasion to bring students and their sponsors together.