Opening doors for a new generation

As told by Rtr. Lakith Rambukkanage

It was an ordinary evening, nobody knew it was going to be the day they’d meet a new family. Placing their trust in the name Rotaract Mora holds, they walked to the 4th-floor Auditorium of Faculty of IT, expecting to have a good time, and undoubtedly they had the best. Starting off with a little of ice breaking, when President Rtr. Paveen Perera took on the mic and asked for two volunteers to help him out on his speech, two volunteers without questioning the task stepped in, proving that they all have what it takes to be a Rotaractor; the will to help others.

The room was filled with nearly 300 new faces, and most of them were strangers to each other. Then they played a little game; the audience was divided into two teams and they threw balloons at each other, trying to put all the balloons to the other side. At the timeout, none of them had succeeded at the game, but they succeeded at making friends with whoever sat next to them, which in our eyes was indeed a success.

The club is not solely focused on community service, it serves the club members as well. Rtr. Amitha Dissanayake, Past President of Rotaract Mora, proved this with his inspiring speech about how being a Rotaractor changed his life. It was evident in the faces of the audience, that his speech motivated them to join Rotaract Mora, build themselves up, build character and become inspired.

Even though the Orientation took place on the 22nd of January 2019, these newcomers have been helping us on various projects since 2018. Testing their Rotaract trivia, an interactive quiz session was conducted next to identify these enthusiastic individuals, and they were rewarded for their eagerness as well.

The quiz was followed by another inspiring speech from a great Rotaractor and sportsman, who is none other than the Immediate Past President of Rotaract Mora, Rtr. Rashan Wickremaratne. He helped the crowd see the different aspects of being a Rotaractor and being a sportsman, and what balances a personality is excelling at both.

The refreshments break was not left in silence as Rtr. Jayami performed a version of ‘Rambari’ written for Rotaract Mora showcasing the talent the club possesses. Followed by this, a few volunteers from the audience stepped up as well and entertained the crowd with their aesthetic talents.

The final game of the evening was to dress up a colleague with newspapers which turned out to be a lot more fun with the creativity they had. Without a doubt, it was a unique and rib-tickling experience for all of them and left the whole crowd in a burst of uncontrollable laughter.

The Orientation concluded with the cordial invitation to join Refraction 2019, followed by the group photograph with the newest additions to the Rotaract Mora family.

The photographer might have had trouble in capturing all 300 faces, but I’m certain Rotaract Mora captured all their hearts.