It's really amazing how the internet works. At one moment, we were strangers lurking around posting content on each of our Facebook pages. With luck, we would get a lot of likes and spark a discussion, or a heated debate perhaps. Sometimes we would joke around, post funny pictures, or even troll some commenters. We were strangers, unknown to one another, with only the internet as the common denominator. Two hundred strangers were brought about by one goal: to help our fellow countrymen.
Looking back, we thought it was an ambitious campaign. We realized that gathering volunteers from our Facebook pages to help in repacking and helping with the relief operations for the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) would be a difficult endeavor. This is the internet after all. These fans of us, who enjoy the information overload from Trivia Mania and the witty "banat" from Pogi Problems, would have difficulty coming together as one coherent group.
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| Most of the admins and some fans |
Last November 16, in cooperation with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), we, the students and yuppie admins of Trivia Mania and Pogi problems gathered these 200 strangers from Manila, Pampanga, Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, and others to an overnight volunteer work at the NROC warehouse of DSWD at Pasay City.
With only ourselves, our used clothes and food to be donated (and some cookies, spaghetti, sandwiches, coffee and snacks, of course), we assembled at the SM Mall of Asia and met with our volunteers, some as young as 16 years old. We chatted for awhile until the appointed time, by which we went to the NROC warehouse by batch.
We weren't particularly organized because of the overwhelming number of people who heeded our call (We were genuinely surprised!). Most of the girls were in the assembly line, sorting and repacking the relief goods, while the guys, working up their muscles, carried and loaded the goods into the cargo trucks. These guys were strangers. The people they worked for were strangers. But after this, after all the events of the many hours in between five in the afternoon and five in the morning, we came out as friends.
We started as pages who aimed to inform and to entertain. We grew as a family, and extended further as a community of internet citizens. This was our first community event, and we hope, the first of many to come. We assure you that we will continue finding ways to set a great example to our generation. And to the future too, of course.
We are the "Pagasa ng Bayan" after all.
Some pictures from the last operation:
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| Lord Vaughn, Uchi and Sponge Boy resting after lifting goods |
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| int mint and the fans working together |
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| Admins and Volunteers resting around 12 midnight |
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| The MVP boys having a little chat while resting |
List of volunteers:
The list of names below are the members who confirmed their attendance to our coordinators in the event, all names listed here are with us during the event from 8pm onwards.
(To be updated)
