It was a Thursday evening, the 18th of August 2022, and we were all set for the first Monthly Gathering of the Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura for the Rotary International Year 2022-23 and for August. At 5.00 pm, we were all seated in the NFC 05 Hall of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, waiting for the gathering to be started.

Rtr. Kavindu Kokila and Rtr. Sehani Perera, the Co-directors of the Community Service Avenue, organized the monthly gathering. They came up with an interesting theme for the meeting, Lord of the Rings. It was great to see that there are still Lord of the Rings fans around. Everything was going smoothly until the thing we feared the most happened. The scheduled power cuts in our country. But miracles do happen because as soon as the power went off, within a few minutes, it returned. As the saying goes, “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” we had to face certain obstacles, but with the support of the committee and our dear members, we were able to overcome them.  

The monthly gathering started with Rtr. Senuri Sithma welcoming the gathering. “The Ring has awoken; it’s heard its Master’s call. What Will be your calling? Are you ready to know what it is? These were her exact words to welcome all the new members present. Following the Rotaract formalities, Rtr. Madushan Dananjaya, the President of the club, took the stage to address the gathering. Since it was our first meeting after long virtual sessions, he again pointed out some important matters related to Rotaract and spoke about the club proceedings. He further encouraged the members to actively participate in the club projects as it will help them bring out the best in themselves as well as serve the community. Following the meeting minutes by Rtr. Gagani Gunasinghe, the Secretary of the club, each director presented their avenue and committee updates while encouraging the members to join the projects.

Why not have some fun amidst the formalities? Of course, a huge surprise was waiting for the members.

The icebreaker session and the ‘Guess the answer’ game were the highlights of the day. After the teams were divided, two leaders were appointed for each team. Rtr. Kokila and Rtr. Sehani then started the icebreaker session and gave five simple questions to each of them, and the two leaders and the members of the respective teams had to share their answers. The two leaders were asked to come in front, and each of them had to tell about their partner’s answers. Interestingly, most of their childhood hobbies were collecting stamps, singing, reading and of course sleeping. Above all majority were interested in visiting Kandy. The ‘Guess the answer’ game was based on the movie, Lord of the Rings. Ten questions were given to the two teams and they had to show their answer written on an A4 sheet within 15 seconds. The team who got the most correct answers wins the game and should give a challenge to the other team. Indeed, the challenge ended up cheering everyone in the room.

After a fun-filled evening, it was time for us to head back home. At 6.30 pm, everything got wrapped up, and our cameras did not fail to take one last snap for our memories.

Written by: Rtr. Malithi Fernando

Graphic Design by: Rtr. Supun Tharaka