National Youth Council’s YEP.Aten.tion on 13 March 2010

On 13th March 2010, Team Escajawa from Singapore Management University collaborated with Blessings in a Bag to celebrate the National Youth Council’s 10th year anniversary in championing the Youth Expedition Project. The key feature of the anniversary celebration was YEP.Aten.tion, a 10-hour local community service marathon. The main aim of the service marathon was to bring together as many youth as possible to be part of a mass movement that will inspire them to ‘walk their talk’ and start volunteering locally.

15 committed and inspired youth volunteers, hailing from several junior colleges came forward to participate. The event flagged off SCAPE Youth Park with a host of team-building games, aimed at breaking the ice.

This was followed by a “Job Hunt” – a main draw of the collaborated event. The objectives of the “Job Hunt” were to allow participants to:

1. Volunteer their services without expecting anything in return, yet still give in their very best.
2. Experience the difficulties faced in organizing or participating in a community service project.
3. Simulate the taking of initiative to approach beneficiaries to offer their help through proposing plans or volunteering their services.
4. Understand that no matter how good the deal may be, it is still possible to face rejections. This would help participants understand that not all beneficiaries may be willing to accept the help that they offer.

The volunteers went around in the groups (with mentors attached to them), to look for jobs in shops in different districts. They were required to work for free, without expecting any form of rewards. It was tough at the start for many groups as they faced initial rejections from shop vendors, who had their reservations about offering the volunteers a task or job to do. Eventually, the struggles met with some form of success as all the groups managed to secure jobs. Deeply entrenched with the spirit of “Never Say Die”, the volunteers cleared the hurdles presented to them, aptly signalling that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

The other draw of the event was the brainstorming session which was aimed at tackling some problems faced by the organization. Some of these problems include:

1. Raising Awareness for “Blessings in a Bag”
2. Getting more volunteers
3. Exploring different avenues in getting donations
4. Solving logistic issues pertaining to transporting donated items

Through the session, volunteers came to know “Blessings in a Bag” better and what the difficulties the organization faced in its daily operations.

The event was successful in fuelling youths with the passion to give and not expect anything in return. This was best summed up by Carol Look (a first-year student at Hwa Chong Junior College)’s response to a talk given by World Change Agent Darren Lin, “… I could really feel the passion you had for what your org does, and that really touched me.”