A community project offers a wide range of benefits to those that it targets. For instance, the pie throwing event, a community project led and managed by juniors Alicia Tan and Hong Li Zheng, helps improve the lives of Cambodian kids while also giving those who participate a great time. Zheng explained the project saying that “the money will go to the Cambodian Children Organization to provide the kids a better life with more food and more clean water.” Tan stated that “it is a fundraising event for the Cambodian Children’s Fund which is an amazing foundation made by a hollywood director Scott Neeson, who saw the families and children picking through and living in the Steung Meanchey garbage dump and wanted to give the children access to support, education, and community development programs”.
Through this project, Tan wishes to convey the message “that no matter where you are in the world all people need basic necessities such as food,shelter and water and there are people who have been deprived of those things and so if you have the ability to help no matter how small it may seem, it can mean the world [to them]”.
This was not the only time the event had been put together. Tan explained how Paul Marques told her about a group who did it awhile back, which is where she got the idea to do it from. In order for the event to come to life, much effort from different people were put in. Marques, and other volunteers were also involved in the preparation for the occasion.
The project team “[had] trouble getting the whipped cream” because, according to Zheng, not many stores sold the amount of whipped cream that they needed. However, the group was clearly able to overcome these problems and made the event the best it could be. Tan commented that “if [she] could do anything differently it would probably be on how rushed everything was”, showing how she would want to work on her group’s time management.
The students were not the only ones who were involved. Teachers from different departments like English, Biology, Mathematics and more came to support the cause and helped to raise money. For Jessica Sullivan, a biology teacher, her reason for participating was because “[her] students [convinced] her to”. She mentions that “Hong Li and Alicia Tan asked [her] to do it and they are really good students so, [she] agreed to it”.
Brian Wong, a teacher from the English department, had also participated, stating that “[he] sincerely wanted to raise the money for the organization”. Similarly, math teacher, Elizabeth Gibbons participated in the event for “a great cause and great students.”
As the event took place and the teachers came up one by one, there was a common reaction among both the audience and the teachers. History teacher, Michelle Filer “was really surprised because [she] did not expect [that] many people to be [there].” Sullivan also added that she “expected [the event] to be a lot of fun” because of “all the eager faces”. Gibbons mentions that she was “a little nervous and terrified” because she did not expect that many people to come. She commented that the event “look[ed] like it will be messy”, so she brought goggles with her to be prepared.
The students, on the other hand, were surprised for another reason. Freshman Rocio Mejia “ thought it was gonna be boring at first but it was more interesting than [she] had expected it to be”. Freshman Matt Mijares, says that he was excited to “see people getting pied in the face.” Senior Danny Mai, on the other hand, was present at the occasion because he “wanted revenge on the teachers.” Others like Mejia and junior Milton Lemus also had positive reaction toward the event. Lem
us explained that the only thing that could have made the event even better was to “include the principal in it.”
For the students like freshman Ali Hounain and Mejia, seeing the teachers getting pied in the face was an exciting thing to watch. “It is not an everyday thing” explained Hounain, adding that “[she felt] very entertained.”
The pie throwing contest ended up being very successful and entertaining for anyone who participated or even just attended. Zheng comments on that saying that she “liked how a lot of people came and seemed to have a lot of fun”. Tan’s reaction was one of pure excitement, saying that she “ was so happy that [she] shed a tear because everything worked out in the end”. She mentions that she had been “ terrified that no one was going to come, and was worried that [she’d] be all alone in cafe with $70 worth of whipped cream and ponchos, but [adds that] thankfully a bunch a people came to support a great cause and have a fun time”.
