Bridge Club Indonesia 20th Anniversary Celebration

September 13, 2018 marked Bridge Club Indonesia’s 20^th anniversary, and we celebrated this milestone by holding a celebration on November 20―right on the day of Universal Children’s Day. More than 100 people, which included former JAs, PAs, chaperons and their respective family members came to celebrate with us.

The event was opened by a brief speech from our Liaison Officer, Mrs Elvira, followed by an introduction of our newly-appointed president for the 2018-2020 period, Wika Saputra, and the General Manager of Bridge Club International Organization, Arief Adinoto.

After a brief look into the history of Bridge Club Indonesia and Bridge Club International Organization, we played a video showing BCI activities over the course of the past 20 years to reminisce on how far we’ve come and remember the good times. We also discussed future plans for BCI, as well as introduced the Work Experience Program and the DOORS+. Everyone had so much fun collecting the OMOIYARI points!

To maintain everyone’s high spirits, we did a fun ice breaking activity of doing the Maumere Dance together. Despite the varying age of the participants, everyone enjoyed it and had a good time acting silly while dancing. Aside from that, we held some quizzes and had recent JAs share their experiences during their time in the Marine House.

Especially remarkable was our teleconference with BC Myanmar and APCC Head Office. Everyone was beyond thrilled to see the banner BC Myanmar drew by hand for us, and it was heartening for our former JAs to talk to the friends they made in Fukuoka. We reached the peak of our event where we did a traditional celebratory gesture of serving Tumpeng (or ‘The Mountain Rice’, as our friend Arief called it) and blew out birthday candles together during our teleconference with the APCC Head Office.

We ended the celebration by forming a circle and singing ‘We Are the Bridge’ together.

All in all, the 20^th Anniversary Celebration was an eventful day where everyone got to rekindle old friendships and form new ones. It was a step forward for BCI to keep closing distances and bringing hearts together. Let us continue to be the bridge between friends and promote the OMOIYARI spirit as we move onward!