The 2015 AMROSIA Kidz With Heart Mini Olympics

A fund-raising event supporting the work of Captivating International in China

Jingshan Villa’s – Shekou was once again filled with a buzz of action and activity on Saturday April 25 as Captivating International ran it’s Mini Olympics event for the 4^th year running.  The event, named the AMROSIA Kidz With Heart Mini Olympics, thanks to the wonderful support of our naming sponsor, Greg Schultheis and the team at AMROSIA global sourcing and inspection, was an amazing day of fun, high-5’s and passionate kids.

Fully booked by participants two weeks before the close of applications, this year created a new challenge for organizers having to turn away parents wanting to enter their children into the games.  Not only that, but organizers were “overwhelmed” with the numbers of volunteers wanting to register to help on the day, with over 40 volunteers being turned away.  What an amazing community we are part of.

This year 178 kids (5 – 11 year olds) competed in multiple Olympic-style events including a swim, soccer and basketball shoot, short and long-distance running races, three-legged race, bean bag toss, ping-pong ball delivery game, archery, long-jump and a limbo event. More than 350 parents, 164 volunteers, local businesses and multiple companies supported the event and a great day of fun and excitement was had by all.

The event was a fund-raiser organized by Captivating International – a Hong Kong registered charity who works in partnership with locally registered grassroots Chinese charities in remote locations of China.  The purpose of the event was to raise funds to support Captivating’s mission of helping the most desperate of children – children that without help will miss their opportunities to be successful in life.  In China, Captivating supports multiple projects ranging from educational support for girls who have missed schooling, through to helping entire villages end poverty through animal husbandry, water solutions, solar panels, greenhouses, and other solutions. Today’s event was specifically about raising funds to support the costs of Captivating administration expenses – enabling it’s China team to continue to do it’s important work for the year ahead.

The success of events like the Amrosia Kidz with Heart Mini Olympics comes down to good organization, planning, wonderful partners, sponsors and volunteers.  Once again the voluntary organizing committee did an outstanding job.  Our congratulations and thanks to Claire Taylor of Snapdragon Interiors who led a small but dedicated team consisting of Vivian Yuan from Captivating, and Bya Patzner from Shekou Community Center.  You three have been amazing.  The committee was supported by an amazing group of volunteers and organizing partners, as well as the wonderful Captivating team.  Thanks Tracy, Francine, Chris and Vivian.

Special thanks to the 164 volunteers, group leaders and minders who kept 178 kids ordered and controlled;  Tom Simpson from SCIE who MC’d for the event; Joel Haines and his team of professional coaches from Five-Star Basketball for running a professional basketball competition; and David Shomaker from Dawei Awesome swim club for the efficient and fun swimming comp.  This group was supported by co-organizing partners on the day –International SOS Medical Clinic, and our Media Partners – that’s PRD, UrbanFamily, Shenzhen Party and Shenzhen Standard – all playing their part in making this a wonderful event.

As a fund-raiser, this event would not happen without our amazing corporate partners:

• our thanks to Greg Schultheis and AMROSIA Global Sourcing and Inspection our Naming sponsors for the event;
• to KidKraft and Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE) for being our two KEY EVENT sponsors this year.  Both organizations are new to our KWH sponsorship group, and we are so excited to have your support and hope you will join us again next year;
• To China Merchants and the Jingshan management group who once graciously provided to us the free use of their beautiful estate, along with fantastic support to ensure the event was safe and enjoyable for children;
• To our wonderful SEGMENT SPONSORS – Green Packaging Asia, Five-Star Basketball, Capstone Finance, our two local international schools, SIS and QSI, as well as WIK.  Your support has helped tremendously in raising important funds for the work of Captivating;
• A big shout-out to the many secondary level students at SCIE (62 of you….wow), QSI, and SIS for volunteering with event management and support;
• Likewise, to the many parents and teachers who took on volunteer responsibilities;
• and a big thank-you to WIK for providing a silent auction with their donated items.  This raised in excess of RMB5000.  Thank you also Yosemite from Maillen Club for yoga fitness performances, and to our food vendors – The Boathouse, HH Gourmet, & Backstube.

But this day was all about the kids.  For the first time in three years, the weather was perfect for a day packed with fun and excitement. “Watching so many kids competing and playing hard was fantastic to see.  The smiles and high-5’s said it all” said Judene Irvine, one of Captivating Internationals Board members.   Andrew Colquhoun, co-founder and CEO of Captivating International states, “this year was a record year financially for this event, with just over RMB250,000 being raised to support Captivating.  It’s a real credit to this local community, that amongst all the busy schedules and priorities, time can still be found to make a difference in the world.  Today was all about fun, but tomorrow this event enables the team at Captivating to change the life of multiple children somewhere in China. That’s what we exist to do, and the Amrosia Kidz With Heart event has enabled our China team to push hard for yet another year.  The organizing committee, volunteers and sponsors have been amazing today.  At Captivating, we can’t thank you enough and hope you’re with us again in 2016”.

Congratulations to all participants who each received an Olympics medal and special congratulations to the award winners, who proudly received their gold, silver and bronze medals while displaying their country flags on the winner’s podium at the end of the event.

To find out more about Captivating’s work in China, email info@captivating.org or go to their website www.captivating.org

Please find high quality photos on http://www.captivatingkidz.org/

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