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| PDI's December 5 Page One |
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I remember in December 2008 when the Read-Along was barely two years old and we were already swamped with offers from partners who wanted to host the sessions in their own venues outside of the Inquirer. I think that week before Christmas we had four or five of them, and two of them in a single day -- the morning in the office, and the afternoon somewhere else. I remember the consensus then was, 'Never Again' -- the stress levels were ridiculous.
Fast forward to early this year. We were in the middle of the elections and in one session graced by the Inquirer president, she told me: Why not have 25 simultaneous sessions for our 25th anniversary? I think I laughed. I laughed very nervously. At the back of my head, I was thinking about how impossible it all sounded.
Months later, here we are. Long story short -- we've managed to pull the whole thing off.
Yes, all 25 of them.
(See this for reference. Haha.)
(Cut for
If you ask me it's all still kind of hard to wrap my head around everything. This week began with my horrible run-in with Murphy's Law regarding those infamous Batanes boxes on Saturday. Hahaha. Sitting there in the company truck at 4 in the morning en route to the airport, all I could think about was how this all started as just that program we had every other Saturday in 2007, and how I wasn't even involved in the very first session in May that year because I was off on Saturdays. But then, as fate would have it, the following month half the section resigned and I was transferred to the Saturday shift, and you know what they say about Fate? Funny, right?
(So yeah, sitting there in the company truck at 4 in the morning waiting for a total stranger to pick up our boxes and head to Batanes, all I could think about was how it would make for a good story, that, when we look back once it's all over and we've gotten through all of the madness alive: God, I was up ridiculously early that morning for a Read-Along errand and Jesus, not even five hours later I was up again to pick the boxes up from the airport after the flight got ~cancelled, and then that afternoon I had to drive the boxes to Sampaloc for Plan B. I was catatonic by 7 p.m. -- LOL. I've waited all week to say that, in case you didn't know. ;))
On D-Day - Saturday, December 4 - when we finished the session at the Inquirer main office ("mother ship" LOL) at around 12, I promptly got messages on my phone from the Mega Manila team reporting how they've managed to finish the sessions in their areas -- SM Mall of Asia, SM North, SM Marilao, Podium. All of them heaving sighs of relief, saying Nairaos din! A few glitches here and there, but in all, a very successful Mega Manila leg.
After reporting the happy developments to my boss, who's basically the Prime Driving Force of the project, I proceeded to call Dyali Justo, the Adarna storyteller whom we invited to go to the session in Batanes. I asked how their session was, and she answered with a very excited, We're done! I don't think I have the proper words to describe the feeling of joy that wrapped around me right then -- I remembered how I was almost ready to give up on the Batanes boxes thinking we'd never get these boxes out of Manila ever, and now there I was, listening to Ate Dyali's news. It was, for the lack of better words, surreal.
When I asked ma'am if we've already heard about the session in Tawi-Tawi, she told me to check my e-mail for Mindanao's breaking news, and there it was.
I sat there thinking, Damn, we really did it, huh.
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Surprising? Not really. It's not even bragging, but you have to know the people I work with to understand -- we like a good challenge. The first question was, How the f*ck are we going to do that? It was difficult enough to put something together week after week - what more 25 sessions all at the same time?
The answer was: Replication. In November 2008, we launched the Read-Along in the four bureaus -- we gathered their bureau chiefs and a few other bureau staff in the Makati office for a two-day Read-Along workshop which included storytelling, organizing and documenting modules and then we sent them out to launch their Read-Along programs simultaneously. (Obviously, it's our thing.) That time, there were four sessions - one in Northern Luzon, one in Southern Luzon, one in the Visayas and one in Mindanao. One per Inquirer bureau. We sent people from Makati to each bureau to help. It was one grand production number -- and that was only four sessions.
What we looked at on December 4 were 25 sessions -- five each per bureau, and five in Metro Manila. That made 25.
Sometime in September, the Northern Luzon Bureau said they wanted to do a session in Batanes, and that the Mindanao Bureau might as well do one in Tawi-Tawi. Of course, the Mindanao Bureau chief said they will - and that he'll do it himself. And so the whole Batanes-to-Tawi-Tawi thing was born.
In June, fresh after the elections, it was all just this huge ominous ~idea. Something we dreaded, but something we obviously couldn't wiggle out of, either.
In between, there were other things: the SONA, the Inquirer book (also launched on December 1 -- I got teary eyed upon seeing the entire timeline printed on this huge tarpaulin at the entrance of the Rizal ballroom in Makati Shangri-La last Wednesday -- now there's something that's sweat, tears and blood, all right).
Too much on our plates? You bet. Insurmountable tasks? Not quite. As we like saying around here, we do "impossible" quite well. :)
So as with all impossible tasks, we broke this project down into reasonable proportions. In October, we gathered correspondents previously handpicked by the bureau chiefs to hold sessions in their own areas and taught them what we did. We invited Alitaptap for a storytelling workshop with them and a handful of Don Bosco high school students. We shared tips on how we put up the program and how we kept it going for three years and counting. My boss talked about organizing. My friend Ruth talked about hosting. I talked about documentation.
The basic idea was that it was always a collaborative effort -- at the heart of it, the Read-Along is a program about spreading, not only the love for reading among kids, but the spirit of volunteerism as well -- I don't even care that this sounds too trite that it's painful, but it's true, and it was so true most especially during the Dec. 4 sessions. I mean, a handful of dedicated workers can only do so much, but when you've got an entire ARMY of them -- man, it's all AMAZING.
And it's not just a matter of winning people within the company over to the cause. Over the past three years, we've also seen other big corporations sharing their resources to kids in the form of gifts like books or food after the sessions, or other goodies they may offer, like school supplies or even toys. Some smaller NGOs have also approached us with their donations. We took whatever they offered and found a way to give them to kids in sessions held both inside and outside the Inquirer main office. At first it was an every-second-and-fourth-Saturday kind of gig, but as more people got involved, we were doing it as often as weekly. Some sessions were even held back-to-back on Fridays and Saturdays.
Most times, our "happy problem" was that there were too many sessions and not enough volunteers to do all of them. We explained that the Read-Along was on top of our regular jobs as newspaper employees, which was why we couldn't do afternoon sessions or weekdays outside of Fridays. Most understood and agreed to do sessions on Friday mornings, or just be part of the Makati sessions on Saturdays.
While our regular sessions, may they be inside the Inquirer or in an outside venue, only took about a week's worth of planning, the December 4 sessions, naturally had to take much longer.
It took a few months to coordinate and organize things. I was right in the middle of planning the correspondents' workshop in October -- if there's one thing I've re-learned recently, it's the use of my planner. For so long I've relied on sheer memory and random pieces of paper to remind me of tasks to accomplish, but the pressure not to fuck any of it up was so strong (LOL) that I reverted to my reliable, circa college thesis method of writing everything down in a planner and highlighting whatever it is I've managed to finish.
I went to work early to catch up with the tasks I had to coordinate with the admin people who went to work at 9; I couldn't afford to go to work right when they're already on their lunch breaks. I was constantly in awe of people's efficiency -- Ate Tsai's dedication with the shirts, Sir Ramil's eternal patience with whatever disaster I had for him (LOL), Sir Bobby's flexibility (hehe). I even watched four people stitch on Santa hats on 500 Guyitos of varying sizes in only two days, right in our office. It was amazing.
A lot of other amazing things happened between October and today; we've been blessed with loads of other things: Shell (sat down with a college acquaintaince who works with Shell who just happened to read about the Read-Along somewhere and wanted to get involved) and Vibal (an old regular partner), agreed to shoulder giveaways for all the kids attending the 25 sessions; SM offered their malls in 13 cities and provinces as venues for free; and McDonalds offered to shoulder food for the kids in attendance in all but four venues.
So yeah, in the beginning we were wondering about things like, Where would we hold it? What would we give the kids after? Where would we get the money to feed kids that many? Suffice it to say the answers came as quickly as the questions. Looking back, it's really amazing, how things just fell into place.
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On the eve of the 25 simultaneous sessions -- Friday -- before I turned off my computer and headed home a little after ten, I kept thinking about something I may have forgotten, because the day had been somewhat unbelievably light; or, at least in comparison to the previous days, it was. But then, looking at how everything in my planner had been crossed out I finally conceded, after minutes of mulling it over, that there was nothing more that can be done.
It was the craziest week, but then it wasn't like I wasn't expecting it. The joy of hearing about the boxes being shipped to Batanes finally on Monday was brief -- we still had at least 23 other areas to ship to. While we've already shipped the basic materials -- tarps, registration kits, storybooks to be read, shirts for the volunteers -- over the weekend, we were still expecting giveaways in the form of books from Vibal and toys from Pilipinas Shell. The Vibal books arrived on Tuesday (Nov. 30), while the Shell toys arrived on Wednesday (Dec. 1) -- yes, mere days before the big day. Did we really expect that we'd get them out to the other venues in time for Dec. 4?
In keeping with the theme, Impossible is nothing -- the library led by Ate Malou and our temps Roxanne and Sheryll (hands down the most hardworking people I know) proceeded to re-pack the Vibal books into boxes and painstakingly labeled them.
We partied briefly on December 1 -- it was the Inquirer's grand party at Shangri-La -- and we even went on to win the grand prize for our presentation (Yes, with the same people who are doing the Dec 4 sessions, LOL, they're amazing). But come Thursday, everything turned feverish. If we were hoping to send these things through our forwarders to reach venues outside Metro Manila, we had to do it fast -- and we had to finish tonight.
Nobody was choosing tasks anymore -- Thursday night I saw my boss lugging around cardboard boxes and packing tape and counting lanyards into plastic bags of 100, 150, 200. It was insane. I was lugging boxes of toys myself, labeling them and counting them and recording them like a dispatcher. Looking back, I realize that we really cut it VERY CLOSE. But then, with the kindness of the people in our circulation department, who answered my calls whatever time it was, we managed to get the boxes to the venues by Friday noon -- the day after we packed them. Again, in keeping with the theme, Amazing...
The week leading up to Dec. 4 was the tightest I've had in recent memory -- it was even tighter than the week that led up to the national elections, if I may say. I woke to phone calls at 7 in the morning (FROM BATANES!) and stayed in the office until very late, and in between through the day EVEN MORE PHONE CALLS. LOL. On Thursday I couldn't even get a decent meal in haha.
I just hope I didn't snap at anyone -- there were times I wore my stress on my sleeve, but most times the team and I released madness and stress via laughter. (You should read my texts to Edna haha) Sure, the tension was insane but it was like when you're doing something of importance as a family -- there's conflict, at times, but you also sorted it out like a family. Nothing you can't just put behind you and move on from, is what I'm saying.
It's surprising also how people are kind -- god knows just how much I've been able to get away with just by being cute and cuddly on the phone. (Schatzi would probably know what this means.) And just how comforting a "smiling voice" is on the other end of the line. I'll always be thankful for Ms Olga, who, despite the fact that we'd just dumped some 60 boxes for transport to 20 areas on very very short notice right on her lap, was actually kind and accommodating, not to mention very, very efficient. I can say the same for Boss Zaldy, whose patience ("Boss! May nakalimutan kaming ipadala... pwede po ba silang bumalik?") is also touching.
That said -- I wasn't kidding when I said many hands have kept us afloat -- what I've seen in the past few months while organizing this thing is something I'd never forget. I guess it's true what they say -- Build it and they will come.
They all did. And as they say, the rest is history.
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On Tuesday I look forward to over a week's worth of newspapers that I haven't been able to read because of all the brouhaha; I look forward to sitting down and catching up with the news and actually doing what I'm supposed to do as an employee of this company HAHA. I look forward to exchanging hugs with people I've pestered so hard ("Sir Ramil! Guyito ko! Tsaka yung tarp! Tsaka...") and sending messages of the non-Read-Along sort to correspondents whom I've been in constant touch with over the last few months.
It's been such a challenging and very fulfilling ride. Right now, after pulling off a miracle of this sort, I feel like with these people, I can do anything.
It's a good feeling, that.
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