Project SMILE in China

I am taking stock after the Shenyang trip.

This trip had been a huge challenge to me. I had never taught a Project SMILE class on this scale before, let alone in Mandarin! Help! As most of you know, Chinese is NOT my forte (and that is putting it mildly?)

Well, I SURVIVED! I not only survived the trip, but to my surprise… I actually enjoyed myself. I managed to teach two out of three c1assroom sessions and anchored an entire community service in Mandarin. But I didn’t do it by myself. I had a kick-ass team of volunteer magicians who helped me every step of the way. (You guys were awesome!)

I remembered how, in 2006, TOUCH Community Services International (TCSI) and Liaoning’s Provincial Communist Youth Party partnered to bring Project SMILE to Shenyang. As Chairman of TOUCH, my dad personally taught magic to 50 of their varsity students.

It was such a successful collaboration that they not only invited us back to teach magic; they also invited my dad to be a guest speaker at Shenyang Technological University and Dongbei University. This is one of the rare occasions whereby China has given an outsider the liberty to speak to their youths about life values.

Wow, I gotta stop a moment to appreciate the immensity of this privilege -- we were allowed the extraordinary opportunity to speak into China’s next generation.

In retrospect, this trip has been very meaningful to me on many levels. Not just Dad’s speech to the varsity students, but through the entire Project SMILE. From the experience of serving the community, our students were able to understand how they as individuals can make a difference.

Their act of kindness of performing magic and spending time with the elderly during the community service segment brought immeasurable joy to the elderly, so much so that it evoked strong emotions in the students themselves.

I always knew that Project SMILE is a great way to get people involved in serving the community, but this particular Project SMILE has taught me that EVERYONE OF US CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Yours Magically,
Priscilla