If you were on board the MRT today, you may have seen our eyecatching yellow WAFF posters inside the train carriage. The WAFF SMRT campaign is officially launched today, look out for our posters and do come down to support us on 13 July, Sunday!
Labels: Marketing, Publicity, SMRT, WAFF Carnival
Support Group Activity – Pop Up Cards
Hi all! I’ve finally had the time to write about the great time we had on 15th March at the Cleft and Craniofacial Centre (or CCRC) making pop up cards. This support group activity was a little different from the rest because we had seven students from Outram Secondary School joining the four of us from USP – Shi Zhen, Kenneth, Qing Zhang, and me. The activity committee decided to allow for secondary school volunteers this time round because we wanted to let them interact with the people they were raising funds for.
The day started off with a presentation by Jo, one of the CCRC staff members, about the different types of cleft and craniofacial conditions. There were a lot of photographs accompanying her presentations so we could see what the different conditions looked like before and after reconstructive surgery. There was silence as we looked at the photographs. I think most of us were shocked by how debilitating some of the conditions could be, especially Apert syndrome which causes the patients’ fingers and toes to be fused together, so they’re unable to do most of the activities that we find easy like holding a pen. What also struck us was the social prejudice that the patients with cleft and craniofacial conditions face. Because they look different, they’re often targets of mockery by their insensitive peers. Listening to the different stories about bullying and low self esteem was a good reminder to all of us to be empathetic, and to judge others not by appearance, but by character.
Jo also introduced us to Operation Smile, a non-profit volunteer medical services organization that provides reconstructive facial surgery to indigent children and young adults. More information about Operation Smile can be found here: http://www.operationsmile.org/
With the presentations over, it was on to more light-hearted things! The tables were already set up and covered with paper to prevent the itchy-handed from vandalizing the table tops. We all gathered around one table and I briefed the students on how to make pop up cards. There were four designs in all – the Christmas Tree pop up, Angel pop up, Butterfly pop up, and the L-shaped pop up.
1: Learning to make the different pop up cards
2 Angel Pop Up
3 Sample L-Shaped Pop Up
The children arrived not long after. There were about six of them, and it started to get noisy and rowdy. Paper aeroplanes were thrown, jokes were shared, and a love story was discovered when one of the children made a card for a girl he admired.
4 A lovely card for a lovely girl named Felicia
Not all the time was spent on pop up cards though. When the children were tired of cutting and pasting, it was time to have fun with the volunteers with paper aeroplane competitions and games. One of our volunteers, Qing Zhang, had the dubious honour of lifting kids off the ground and spinning them around.
5 A tired but happy Qing Zhang
The secondary school students also made their own pop up cards and wrote reflections on them. These cards will most likely be displayed at the CCRC stall that will be set up during our WAFF carnival.
6 Hard at work making their cards
Besides reflections, the students also wrote encouragements for all those working hard at making the carnival a success. Here are some quotes:
Denise:”加油！努力！Continue to work towards your goal!”
Carol: “Be Happy! We must work together to organize the carnival.”
Ian: “This is a good way to raise awareness about cleft and craniofacial conditions. This will enable patients to move on with life and ignore mockery. Persevere!”
Dion: “I hope that all of you will have fun. Persevere and do not give up because I know all of you can do it. All the best and I hope that it will be the best carnival of the year!”
Sin Ni: “Dear volunteers, you are doing a meaningful job here, keep it up. You are worth my admiration! Work hard and make the carnival a success!”
Qiu Yan: “Dear volunteers, remember!! What you are doing may seem insignificant but it is a great deal to the children, don’t give up!”
Nur Syahirah: “GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! Continue to succeed!”
With these encouraging words, how could anybody feel weary or down? Go volunteers! May WAFF be a huge success!
Yours truly,
Boon Pin
Activities Head
In school at 8.30am on a Saturday morning. I thought this better be good, or else... But as it turns out, my concerns were unfounded. The workshop was scheduled at 10am, but the bunch of us were pleasantly surprised when the first enthusiastic group from Outram Secondary arrived slightly past nine, especially given that the Business Faculty isn't the easiest place to get to on campus. *clap* clap*
As the rest of the participants filed in, some appeared relaxed and prepared while others looked flushed from the morning walk-a-jog, but the buzz among the groups pre-empted the lively session that was going to follow for the day. How can it not be right? Since the speaker is such a bubbly character, the participants got into some stirring discussion in no time. (Earlier on at the registration booth, scatter-brained me asked Prof Tachibana which school he was from. His witty reply then made me realised he wasn't a participant, but our guest speaker. Well, that goes to show that he looks young ok?)
Value proposition: valued, valuable, valunique, valuation. *Poof* That's marketing summarised in five words (ok, six if you count value proposition as two). It's magic, right? Partly. It requires some thinking to figure out what your customers need and want, what your competitors are doing, how you should act and react such that at the end of the day, you make preferably a tidy profit and hopefully progress towards GLOBAL DOMINATION.. muahaha...
But before that, do your sums and make sure your revenue still exceeds your expenses after some reality checks based on your realistic market share. To find out what you missed on customer problem question, segmenting, the 4Ps (product, place, price, promotion) etc, you can click here.
To be honest, I'm rather impressed by the energy of these secondary to pre-university students. It makes the effort to get up early in the morning worth it. (Hey organisers, run faster too.) Calling all youths who are itching to try their hand at their first business attempt. It's not too late to sign up. Hesitate no more. Check out the WAFF website. You wouldn't just be doing business, it would be business with a social cause.
Feel the FUZZ, take the step, bridge the gap..
Written by Wanqi, the lady at the registration counter on 23rd Feb but somehow knew what went on inside LT16.
Feel the Fuzz, Take the Step, Bridge the Gap.