Aryan Arora
As someone who supports the responsible and sustainable use of goods, I was very intrigued by the idea of Swappers Stop. Swappers Stop was an event planned by our school in which we collected books, clothes, accessories, etc from other people and offered them points so that they could buy other people’s stuff, this way none of the things go to waste and everything is reused although there might be some items that are left out which will go to the charity. The aim was to be a small part of the bigger cause. CAS in grades 11 and 12 gave me the opportunity to be a part of this event in which my role as a collection coordinator was to communicate with students and teachers from different grades and encourage them to donate items for a better cause and then collect them for the event. I had a lot of fun at the event and knowing that it was for a good cause, it also felt good working for something that is going to benefit us people and the world around us.
LO1:- During the event I did identify my strengths and weaknesses, my strengths were that I and my friends were able to convince people to buy stuff in this case clothes from our stall which made them buy more and more although my weaknesses were that sometimes it got difficult to manage many people at once. It is very important for us to know our strengths and weaknesses so that we can work upon our weaker areas in the future. I would love to work upon my weaknesses so that the next time something like this happens things can move more smoothly.
LO2:- The challenges that I faced during this event were that this was something new for me and I have not been a part of something like this hence everything was new to me and learning stuff was fun. The part that was so challenging was the part where I had to sell products and convince people to donate. Undertaking this challenge turned out to be good for me as I was able to work upon my weaknesses. For me, it is very important to overcome our challenges as doing this will help us overcome our fear, also it is very important to learn new skills as they might come in handy in the future.
LO3:- As a part of the team I organized myself by doing all my tasks on time and listening to my fellow coordinators. In most cases, I am an organized person. During this event, the planning part was much harder than the initiation as during the planning everything was to be perfect hence knowing how to plan and initiate is very important as it gives us an upper hand in making the event or activity successful.
LO4:- Planning this event took a lot of time, and commitment to completing the tasks was very important if we wanted this event to be successful. The commitment was required from every member of the team as even if one person fell short of his/her task it would’ve been very difficult for all of us. For me, it is easy to commit to the things I like and this was one of those things that caught my interest hence committing to this event was easy for me. Showing commitment and perseverance toward things demonstrates that one cares about the tasks that he/she is doing.
LO5:- Working with others is generally easy for me as I tend to gel up with others easily, so for me working with others isn’t that big of a deal. During this event working with others for me was easy as I was able to communicate with others and I am an open-minded listener hence I was able to work with them as a team. I didn’t have to work with anyone difficult. it is important to be able to work collaboratively as it helps us work in a team together with different people. In this particular case, teamwork was important as we had to work as a group in order to make this event a success.
LO6:- The global issues that are connected to this event were responsible consumption and production and climate action. These issues are listed in the sustainable development goals (SDG) given by the UN which are basically 17 goals that are needed to transform the world into a better place and these are 2 of the SDGs given by UN. Knowing about global issues helps us be aware of what not to do and what tasks should be prevented in order to attain better living conditions for everyone. Knowing these issues gave me knowledge about how these can hamper the living conditions of our planet and through this CAS project, I also contributed towards reducing this issue as all of the items that were collected were reused and or recycled.
LO7:- As such there were no ethical issues involved in this CAS project but some could be where asking permission to sell people’s clothes was mandatory so it doesn’t affect them in any way. These ethical issues did not affect me in any way but asking for people’s permission was an important task as without that collecting wouldn’t have been possible. This issue was solved by getting the donators consent.
All in all the event was a success, everyone including me had a lot of fun at the event and most of the items were sold out. My final takeaways from this project were that not everything has to be made out of nonsustainable products, reusing stuff can also result in the same. One skill that I developed during this event was leadership as I played a key role in the collection part of this event, this improved my time management and leadership skills as well. Also by donating the remaining products and using sustainable products for the decor we were able to give abck to the community.
