Erica Times
Extracurricular Activity
Taekwondo Leadership & Junior Instructor
(Gr. 9~)
After demonstrating my abilities as a taekwondo athelte and a leader, I was invited to join the leadership volunteer team. This team recruited a few athletes every year to train potential instructor staffs. After a one and a half years of helping teach class as a leader as well as volunteering as summer camp leader, I was hired as a junior instructor and started working 4 hours a week at the taekwondo school. As a junior instructor, I have assumed a greater responsibility as a mentor that the taekwondo students look up to. I have continued to commit to my training, leadership classes, and junior instructor workshops to make sure I am always improving as a leader.
A Small Framed Gift for the Seniors
Christmas is almost here! A day filled with happiness, appreciation and mouthwatering smells that comes only once a year. As a teen, I may not believe in Santa Claus anymore but Christmas is still as enjoyable for me when I did years before. This is because Christmas is still that same day filled with happiness and appreciation with my loving family. Especially because this pandemic, our family is planning to spend a warm and cozy Christmas day together in our house, all of us wrapped in one gigantic blanket with a cup of hot chocolate to accompany us while watching a cheesy holiday movie.
I realized that many seniors would not be able to do this if they did not have family members who were there to snuggle in a blanket with them.
Because of this pandemic, the seniors have been even more isolated from others and cannot fight off loneliness by being with their friends and family. Thinking more about this made my heart break and I thought of what I could do to chip at least a little bit of that loneliness away. Something that could be like a pat on the back—a way to give words of encouragement. What could I do?
I contacted the West Vancouver Senior Centre asking if it was possible for me to make these calligraphy pieces for the seniors. Fortunately, they happily accepted and my project began that day, three weeks before Christmas Day.
Here are photos of just a couple of the designs I did:
I wanted my message to be something that could cheer them up, not just during Christmas time, but everyday whenever. I created 40 calligraphy pieces and framed all of them so that the seniors who received them could just prop it up somewhere.
2021 Senior Centre Calligraphy Donation
I made approximately 60 hand-crafted framed calligraphy art pieces featuring positive messages similar to the messages I wrote in 2020. These pieces were delivered to seniors all over Vancouver who were struggling financially and/or were having a lonely holiday season.
2022 Senior Centre Craft Donation
In 2022 year, I wanted to continue my contribution to the seniors' holiday season but change things up. This time I handmade 50 festive crafts using a variety of different materials hoping that it could brighten some of the seniors days during the cold winter.
Amica Retirement Residence Program
Amica one of the leading providers of senior retirement homes and I decided to bring the program from the west vancouver senior activity centre to these retirement residences. This was a different challenge, however, from doing the program at the senior centre as the seniors at Amica had more severe levels of dementia. Working closely with Connie Paguio, Life Enrichment Coordinator, I re-designed the program to benefit the seniors at the homes more. To start this program at the homes, I had to go through a lengthy process of having several meetings with Connie, taking a TB test, providing vaccination proof, an online training course and a document process similar to what a regular employed staff would have to do.
