Matriculation Fair
By Belinda
From the 22nd to the 28th of July 2010, the NUS Kendo Club set up our booth in MPSH 2 for the incoming freshmen's Matriculation Fair.
This year, we decided to have our booth resemble that of a Japanese ramen stall!
Putting our booth together on Decoration Day
Putting up our "ramen" stall.
Its banner reads "Yokoso", which stands for Welcome
Helping to cut the many leaflets and bookmarks to be given out
All done!
With the help of members who kindly volunteered their help, we managed to put up the booth all within the 3 hours that were allocated! We were all ready to receive the crowd starting Thursday.
For the actual fair, our "ramen" stall received extremely good "business". The MPSH was often filled with people throughout the four days, regardless of the time. Given the vast number of booths set up by all the different CCAs, Faculty Clubs and more, it's no surprise that any freshman might have been confused that day as they navigated through the maze of MPSH 2.
Those of us who were on duty donned our kendo attire, consisting of our kendo gi and hakama, as well as our do and tare. Many people, both students and parents, gave us long looks when they came across our booth! Some even asked if it would hurt if they hit our do (chestplate). For the record, it wouldn't hurt us at all :)
Much of the day was spent giving out our leaflets and bookmarks. Time flew by quickly for us on duty; there was simply too much to do! In fact, when it came to the end of our shifts, many of us were unwilling to leave.
There were plenty of freshmen for us to approach, and plenty of questions to answer to interested individuals. During our breaks, we spent our time watching high-level kendo videos together, enjoying each others' company, as well as getting to know members from other neighbouring clubs better, such as the people from inline skating and judo.
The sign-up sheets were filled up extremely quickly, and our bookmarks and leaflets were disappearing fast. We were happy that more people could learn about what kendo was, and hopefully they were interested in joining!
A closer look at our booth
Our bogu (armor) display, hereby named John Doe
Our colorful FAQ board, containing photos that were all taken from our own events / trainings
Videos of kata sessions, carried out using actual katanas by sensei-level kendokas
Our booth and our pride!
In all, our work at the Matriculation Fair was a great success. We not only managed to get an extremely good sign-up response from interested freshmen, but also helped to share what our martial art is all about to the general public. There were common questions like "does it hurt?" and "do you use real swords?", to more specific ones like how points are scored during tournaments.
On my part as the Publicity/IT Head, and therefore I/C of Matriculation Fair, I would like to express my gratitude to my fellow exco members and everyone else in the club who were so enthusiastic in helping out! They willingly volunteered to come down for the fair throughout the four days, and also to help decorate the booth, even though it was the holidays.
I'm glad to be in a club like Kendo where everyone helps to give what they can, and even when they're not asked too.
Where else can doing booth duty throughout the day not seem boring or tedious, but something that is enjoyable and fun? :D
See you all at Welcome Tea, don't miss out on the fun!
