One Heck of a Ride Later

Hello beautiful people! (For one last time)

It was a life changing moment when I got into the Rotaract family, sometimes my mind asks, ‘how did I get so lucky to have a group of friends like you all?’ I really am thankful that all of you in the Rotaract family are part of my life.

I would like to start by saying that the Club Service Avenue was one of my favourite avenues when I was in my 1st year mostly because of the fun events hosted by the seniors at the time. As such I would like to thank Rtr. Gethmi Adikari (the outgoing president) for the opportunity and the immense support I received throughout the journey (also for tolerating my inner craziness and being super patient with me) and of course I’d like to mention Kavindi and Dinithi who were also such wonderful sports.

If I were to go back to the very beginning, the first event organised by the Club Service Avenue, was the club picnic. Thanks to the EXCO and Board of Directors we had a table full of picnic food and it was a fun-filled evening which led to making strong relationships with our new Rotaractors.

The Installation was our next big event.  We had an amazing installation evening thanks to the immense help and support given by everyone. The installation was closely followed by the Halloween party, which we named O’Spooky – an appropriate name as the evening was very spooky indeed and saw Rotaractors donning creepy costumes gathered in a horrifyingly scarily decorated room.

We then had our Annual Club Trip which was in Awissawella this year. It was a fun day out with three generations of Rotaractors gathering.

We ended the year 2022 on a high note with our Christmas party, named O’Santa, (clearly inspired by O’ Spooky.)  O’Santa was done in collaboration with the Leo Club of the Faculty of Arts’.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the project chairs of who helped make every event conducted by the Club Service Avenue a success. The organising committees also deserve a round of applause for their patience despite the immense amount of work that was piled up on them.

Unfortunately, due to an unavoidable reason, I had to leave the country at the beginning of 2023 and leaving the Rotaract family at UOC was one of my biggest regrets. I’d like to thank you all for the greatest surprise you gave me at the O’Santa event. Following my resignation, Bhagya and Jehan took over as Co-Directors of the Club Service Avenue, and as we’ve seen so far, they have been the best fit and have done a marvellous job! 

I believe as the newly appointed Co-Directors of the Club Service Avenue, Hasini and Savini will continue our legacy with both signature and new events. I wish you both the best of luck!

Here we go, we’ve come to the end of my goodbye.

Best of luck for the upcoming year Jehan, Bhagya, and the team.

I miss you all and O’Oshini akki loves you all a lot!

Rtr. Oshini Hewawaduge

Co-Director of the Club Service Avenue

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It was our greatest honour to have served the Rotaract Club of the University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts as the co-directors of the club service avenue. Although the two of us currently hold the position as co- directors of the avenue, it was previously held by our beloved senior Rtr. Oshini Hewawaduge.

Oshini akki was a guiding light full of energy and positivity. When the clubs’ proceedings initially started there weren’t many members in the club service avenue. Then came the Halloween event “O’Spooky”. Through this event, Oshini akki drew the attention of almost all the members of the club and everyone wanted to join the organizing committee of the event. We learned so much from her while conducting the event and improved a lot as individuals. The avenue itself developed with this very first event. Members started joining the avenue and there was active participation. Sadly however, Oshini akki had to go abroad after the “O’Santa” event, and this is how we (Rtr. Baagya Piyamudalige and Rtr. Jehan De Silva) were appointed as the Co-Directors of the avenue. We knew the depth of our responsibility but never feared for a second as to how we’d manage an avenue. The experiences we had gained by engaging in the previous projects had made us confident enough to take up the challenge of being the new Co- Directors, despite being in the junior batch.

The journey was challenging, and we had to face numerous hardships in the completion of our projects. Nevertheless, we were able to successfully complete the “Be Mine Maybe” project and “Baila Night 2023” with the help of all our members. In our journey of completing these projects, we not only gave value to our club, but were able to gain so much experience personally, which made us become better individuals. We were able to work as a team, improve time management skills, communication skills, and many more. These projects also gave us a bunch of memories to cherish for life.

We would never be able to end this year with so much knowledge and experience if not for the faith and trust the EXCO and the Board of Directors had in us. We are forever grateful to them for having given us the responsibility of handling an avenue.

We are extremely thankful for the continuous support given by each member of the club to make this year’s proceedings less of a burden and more joyful.

We believe that Hasini and Savini will do a marvellous job as the upcoming Co- Directors of the club service avenue and make the club shine more than it already does.

Rtr. Baagya Piyamudalige & Rtr. Jehan De Silva

Co-Directors of the Club Service Avenue