Sharing and caring

(From top) A student of Sai International School with a girl of SOS Village, Bhubaneswar, on International Day of Service, Winners St Paul’s School, Rourkela (boys) and St Joseph’s Convent School, Rourkela (girls) at the first Open School Basketball Tournament in the Steel City. Telegraph picture and picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

To bring joy to the less fortunate, Class XI students of Sai International School, Bhubaneswar, visited the Jeevan Jyoti Ashram and SOS Village in the capital on the occasion of International Day of Service on May 7.

The students donated toys, storybooks, art and crafts materials and clothes for the little kids at the orphanages and spent the day with the kids. They conducted a storytelling session, narrating several moral stories including “The Rainbow Fish” in Odia.

This children’s story is about the most beautiful fish in the ocean, who is asked to share one of his gleaming scales with a little blue fish. When he refuses, the other fish in the sea begin to avoid him and he goes to the wise octopus for advice. She asks the rainbow fish to give away his scales and he reluctantly does so, except for one. In the end, he is less beautiful than earlier but has new friends and is now the happiest fish in the sea. This gave out the message to the children about the importance of sharing, caring and friendship.

This session was followed by craft activity as the children made a rainbow fish with coloured papers and crayons.

“It was the best three hours of my life. Seeing a smile on the kids’ faces encouraged us all to come here again and spend time with them,” said a student of Sai International School.

School chairman B.K. Sahoo said community service is a part of the curriculum and students taking part in such initiatives are given certificates after completion of 20 hours of community service.

Gully cricket

A popular soft drinks company organised ‘Gully Cricket Champs-2012’ at the Uditnagar High School, Rourkela, on May 7 for the school students. The event received an overwhelming response. More than 10 teams — with six players on each side — participated in the event.

However, there was no proper field or pitch. Six nets had been pitched up at the venue. Each team had six players and got only one over to play.

Each player had to face one delivery and bowl one ball. Wides and no-balls were not counted. Different scores for different corners of the nets had been fixed earlier. Whenever the ball touched a particular area, the specified runs were awarded to the batting team.

This tournament is being held in different cities of the country. There are huge cash awards for the winning and runners-up teams in each zone and the zonal winners will qualify for the mega final to be played at Hyderabad from May 18 to 20. The ultimate champions will receive a cash award of Rs 5 lakh.

Basketball success

The first Open School Basketball Tournament, organised by the Rourkela Steel Plant and Steel Authority of India Limited to promote sports talents in the Steel City, concluded on May 2.

Over a dozen schools — six in girls’ category and eight in boys’ category — participated in the tournament.

In the final match, St Paul’s School won the boys’ title by defeating Delhi Public School, Rourkela, 29-20 while St Joseph Convent School emerged victorious in the girls’ league by beating Deepika English Medium School 12-6.