Why did we walk into a remote elementary school?
As a brand that has a long history of designing experiences for corporate teams, we're used to standing in a meeting room with a group of partners, building trust and finding "their" language. But in the summer of 2025, we're moving to a different venue - an elementary school on Jin Guashi Mountain in New Taipei City.
We hope that this event will be a step forward for Fun Bay in realizing our core philosophy of "Making Everyone Understood and Connected".
We took the picture book and went into the world of the children
On that day, Fun Bay and our partner "Room to Draw" came to Gua Shan Elementary School to create a picture book with 22 children: "The Other Side of the Bridge, What I Want to Do". The protagonist of the story is a raccoon named Xiao Le, who has lived in the mountains since he was a child and is full of imagination about the outside world, and also knows from others that he may be able to help others. So he begins to draw bridges - each one leading to a place where he wants to take action.
The program started with an icebreaker, where we asked each other a few everyday, yet heartfelt questions. The children asked us, "What is your job? Do you need to speak English well?" We were curious and asked them, "What did you have for lunch today? What are your favorite and least favorite subjects at school?"
Utilizing the professionalism of team building to get close to the children's heart
Through step-by-step interactions and discussions, we get closer to the children's lives and practice imagining the next step with them. From the group interaction, we build up a kind of trust - we can accomplish a painting, a work, a dream together.
We know that true engagement is not about giving resources, nor is it a short-term gesture of companionship, but it is about actually expanding their imaginations of future careers and roles of action - 'who we can be'.
This time, we transformed modules normally used in corporate team building (e.g. psychological safety, co-creation process, team feedback design) into a language and approach that children can also participate in. The team members also experienced a change in their roles - from facilitator to listener, from activity designer to companion.
We have found that the profession of team building is not just for the workplace, but it can also go into the classroom, into all ages, and become a soft but firm language.
The children drew their dreams: one drew a prairie, saying, "I want to be a teacher and take my students to draw on the prairie"; another drew a cake store because there is no cake store in Chinguashihi. She said, "I like to make cakes, and I think I can do it".
Their paintings are the truest voice.
When the time came to share, the children introduced their dream bridges one by one. Some were shy, some were excited, but every picture and every word was the core proof of this action - these voices deserve to be seen and recorded.
And we accompanied them, painting those sounds together.
That's what Fun Bay wants to keep doing: accompanying a group of people, gathering their strengths, and painting a picture of where they want to go and what they want to accomplish. Whether the other side of the bridge is a city, a grassland, or a cake store.
Because on the other side of the bridge, someone is really waiting.
-- LeBay
