Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between. We’re here to tell you a wonderful love story of heartwarming togetherness at the HGS Valentine’s Day huddle.
We once again felt butterflies in our stomach as our HGS teams held another amazing huddle. For the month of February, we definitely could not miss out on the opportunity to celebrate love. Which is why we brought out the heart balloons and pumped up the volume on love songs for our huddle theme of Rad Romance! How else could we cap off the month than with a little help from Cupid?
But first, the Philippines is known to celebrate the holidays with style. Filipinos love a good Christmas or even just a humble fiesta. So how does the day of love look like in the Philippines?
Valentine’s Day in the Philippines
While not an official holiday, the effects of Valentine’s Day can certainly be felt in the Philippines. Weeks before February 14, public places transform into Cupid’s paradise. Advertisements would cater to the Filipinos love for cheesy yet classic taglines for couples and single people. It’s common to find public confessions around schoolyards or in parks. The streets would be lined with vendors holding up large bundles of red heart balloons, others sitting by the curb with people lined up to buy single roses for their loved ones. It’s a magical atmosphere to be in.
People would give flowers, chocolates, even write letters to not only their partners but to their friends and families. It’s even cemented as a day to celebrate weddings. An average of over 13,000 couples in the Philippines held a wedding every February 14 from 2008 to 2020. It’s even a tradition for the city mayor to hold a mass wedding where several people get married at the same time! This goes to show that the Philippines celebrates love in the same way they do any holiday: with a party and as a community. How could HGS miss out on that?
February: A Month of Events and a Valentine’s Huddle
The infatuation for Valentines Day became infectious once we entered the pantry at each HGS site. With the classic red heart balloons decorating the walls, pink/red streamers, and booming love songs, it’s impossible to not feel the passion that the engagement team had put into this month’s huddle.
That being said, HGS had quite the eventful few weeks leading up to this event. Alongside HGS, we had two major events for February: promotions for the One HGS Run titled Heart Race 2023 last February 26, and our blood donation drive Helping Hearts. All of which centred around the season of love, the season of compassion.
Lachlan Maxwell, HGS’s Senior Vice President, began the huddles with a well-deserved praise for the HGS engagement team. “It warms my heart,” Lachlan said, “to see so much passion and enthusiasm.” After which HGS’s Vice President in Operations, Paul Butalid, applauded everyone’s efforts and contributions for Helping Hearts and the excitement over Heart Race. “From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all that you guys do. Never hesitate to reach out because my doors are always open.”
Love is a Game and We are Here to Play
Twenty-Five Seven hyped up the crowd with a nostalgic game of “Guess the Movie Title” From Filipino classics! From Milan (2004) to Western romantic comedies like Serendipity (2001), the staff were challenged to guess movie titles based on their famous quotes alone. But of course, what’s a script without an actor? Barbie from Twenty-Five Seven gave us quite the performance for each of the movie quotes. Acting with heart, passion, and raw emotion. Bravo!
Of course, hearts don’t stop beating when the sun comes down. Our folks over at the night shift tested out their cooperation and balancing skills with a game of The Boat is Sinking! The participants did their best to stay on that diminishing piece of paper for as long as they could. Boy, did it seem hard! But it’s a testament to the winner’s cooperation (and physical skills) that they won with no injury, just a great time.
And it only gets better over at the Management Team huddle at Twenty-Four Seven! Keeping with the theme of romance in pop culture, our staff played a round of Romantic Movie Charades. The lively crowd yelled out their guesses as one of the team members acted out a romantic movie. You can bet that they knew each and every one of them!
Time to be Together Through a Huddle
Everything from the cheesy one-liners, romantic-comedies, and balloon hearts are what we relate Valentine’s Day with. But the season of love is really just about one thing: togetherness. Even if it’s just setting aside a few hours to have some fun with the people who make our workday better, we’re glad everyone had a great time. If you’re curious to know about how One HGS Run went, well we’ve got the recap for you right here.
That’s a wrap for our Valentine’s Day huddle, and February in general. Luckily, after this vibrant jumpstart to a year of great huddles, we’ve got another one coming right ahead with our March huddle: EmpowHer! See you later, lovebirds!
