Rock Climbing at True North Climbing

Hey everyone!

Whitney here  : )   

I'm the marketing coordinator for Mon Sheong Youth Group this year, and just this past weekend I attended the first social event of the year - rock climbing!  Nearly 30 people showed up and I'm sure everyone, like myself, had an amazing time challenging themselves physically and mentally to the many walls available at True North Climbing. 

A view of what the interior looks like and us learning how to tie our harnesses. 

As a first time climber, I was quite hesitant about everything especially when I found out we would be supporting each other's climb instead of an instructor / staff. But the staff gave us all thorough instructions and tested us before letting us run off on our own. 

Here's me awkwardly practising tying the ropes.

The facility was very large, so there were many walls to climb! Different walls and different sections have their own level of difficulty, so everyone could find a spot that was perfect for them to try.  There were even walls that you could climb harness - free! 

Sarah climbing and dressed like a pro : ) 

Simon climbing a difficult wall as well! I think it was a 5.8 or 5.9. 

And here's Jeremy climbing a wall that gave me the toughest time.

It took me probably 5-10 mins, but I did it with everyone's support  : ) 

Overall, this was an AMAZING event. I invited some of my non-youth group member friends and they were all thanking me for inviting them to such an awesome activity. Even they are looking forward to what events Mon Sheong Youth Group has in store this year! 

Our next event is Tree Planting on Saturday April 27th at 10am at Miliken Park. Read more about it if you're interested in joining us at our Facebook event.  If you can't make it, be sure to check up on our blog where we will recap the event, or through our Facebook page to keep up with us. 

Hope to see you all soon!

Whitney 

2013 Volunteer Appreciation Dinner

Each year, the Mon Sheong Foundation throws a large banquet style dinner to show its gratitude towards the hundreds of volunteers that support the foundation's activities. The Youth Group is just one group among the many Mon Sheong volunteers that gets invited to this massive dinner.

When I say 'massive' dinner, I definitely mean massive. Over 400 volunteers came out to Mong Kok Restaurant in Markham on a chilly Saturday evening to take part in the festivities. Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of the entire banquet hall, but it was pretty cozy in there with enough tables crammed together to seat over 400 guests. Even with the cozy seating, it was often so boisterously loud I often had problems hearing people sitting just across the table.

Around twenty Youth Group and Discover members came out for the dinner. You can see that we squeezed together into two tables near back.

Discover

(Discover Table)

Youth Group

(Youth Group Table)






Before dinner was served, four of the youth group/discover embers got called on to the main stage to play a little game. They were competing against another team in a relay to see who could pass the little yellow balls with chopsticks the fastest. Unfortunately, our team was not so adept at the chopsticks this time around. Good try though you guys!

Jeremy, Jason, Alice, and Gillian taking part in the stage game

This isn't a food blog, so I won't go into detail on what we ate, but needless to say we were all pretty stuffed at the end of the night. There were rounds of char siu, roast pigeon, scallops, and even lobster. I'll post one food pic though just for posterity's sake.

Lobster course at Mong Kok

During dinner we (the entire Youth Group & Discover) were called out on to the main stage to put on a performance. Now for some background for those that don't know, every volunteer group in Mon Sheong (Chinese School, Long Term Care Centre, Foundation, Youth Group, etc) has to give a performance at the volunteer dinner as a long running tradition. The Youth Group choose to sing in unison this year (as it does most years). We performed Jacky Cheung's famous cover single 每天愛你多一些. I'll spare you the reader from showing you our performance and just link you to a youtube of Jacky Cheung singing it.

每天愛你多一些 by Jacky Cheung


After the rousing rendition of Jacky Cheung's hit single, the next time we got called on to stage involved a lot less singing. It being a volunteer appreciation dinner afterall, our 2012 execs got a token of appreciation for their hard work during 2012.

2012 Youth Group execs pose after receiving their certificates

To cap off the night, the dinner ended with a prize draw. Our very own Youth Group communications coordinator - Bonnie won the grand prize......an Ipad Mini!!! Congrats Bonnie. You can see her posing with her prize in the group photo we took at the end of the night.

The whole Youth Group at the end of the night

We also headed off to an after party after that long and filling dinner, but sorry folks no pictures or recap of that event is available. You have to track us down in person to get the details for that one. Hopefully see all y'all volunteers at the 2014 dinner.

-Kerry

Mon Sheong Youth Group is BACK!

Hey folks,

We're back for another year of fun and games! The MSYG blog will be active once again!

Check back regularly for recaps of our events and sneek peaks at upcoming events. Until then don't forget to like our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MSYouthGroup for the latest news and happening on  MSYG activities.

You can also join our email list by giving us a shout at: msyg@monsheong.org

Look for new blog posts starting next week!

-Kerry