For The LOVE of Orangutans

Yes. It is finally time to pack up. Today is the day. D-day to hand in our blog URL to the contest coordinators. We have "travelled" a long way to make our campaign successful. We have been through thick and thin, over the mountains and the seas to spread word of orangutan jeopardy. However, our efforts do not stop here. We will still continue selling our merchandise, (actually that which is leftover from our stock before today) because of the good response we've been getting. There are limited things available so please inquire and place your orders through our Facebook page. As for the money we have collected so far and the petitions as well, we would be sending them to WWF.

We would really like to extend our deepest gratitude to our headmistress, teacher advisers, teachers, friends, parents and all our supporters who have been our pillar of strength through out this whole campaign.

As to whether our campaign was effective, you can judge for yourselves by watching the comments by teachers and a class which we have interviewed. The message has definitely gotten across, considering the limited time we had in between lots of exams, for example, PMR trials, second assessment test, PMR, SPM trials and our final exam. You can view their comments in the Art and Videos section of our blog.

Once again, we would like to thank all of you people out there for visiting our blog and supporting us in one way or another in making our campaign a success.

           LONG LIVE THE ORANGUTANS!

Okay, so it is not really the end of our campaign yet, in the sense that we have yet to submit our blog url, petition forms and donations to the respective parties. However, we had a minor closing ceremony in school to announce that we will end our campaigning as of today.

To that, Lisa gave a short and sweet speech during the assembly to inform the students and teachers about our ending moment as well as thank all of them who have been supporting us through out the entire campaign.

Thank you photo taken from:

http://workitmom.com/bloggers/workitmom/files/2010/05/thank-you-note.jpg

The campaign continued today when we managed to squeeze in some time between studies to get our things organized. Running a campaign is no joke as we've found out and there was a ton of work to be done.

We had to  :

- make another trip to SK CGL to pass them the things they ordered.

- count the money (again and again and again).

- 'chase after', 'harass' and basically bug people into paying up for their products.

- stack hundreds of shirts into a more or less neat pile.

- count everything and separate all the shirts according to size.

- put up pamphlets in as many classes as possible.

- collect all the petition forms and count all the petitions.

And amazingly, we managed to accomplish all of that in between lessons (I've just realized we probably either move at lighting speed or are super efficient) (yes, I am praising us) (no, I'm not trying to be conceited, it's the TRUTH!)

Anyway, we're all extremely tired and on top of all that, we now need to revise for finals. Thank goodness we're smart people. Yes, now I'm really singing our own praises.

Final planning before going over to our sister school

Going through the sketch for the last time

We really have to thank Pn. Mariani, headmistress of SK Convent Green Lane, Pn. Jenny, the Student Affairs Senior Assistant  of SK Convent Green Lane, the teachers of SK CGL who willingly accompanied the students in the hall, Pn. Tan Saw Lean, the head mistress of SK Bukit Gelugor and En. Nazri Bin Abdul Hamid, the Administration Head of SK Bukit Gelugor for allowing us to spread the message in their school about the importance of saving the Orangutans.

Rebekah giving the talk

Setting up our stall while the talk was going on

The students listening attentively

We were blown away by their response. Their overwhelming feedback gave us a lot of encouragement throughout the talk. After the talk and PowerPoint presentation, we proceeded to a Question and Answer session. The Question and Answer session was a two-way session. The students were given the chance to ask any question about what they wanted to know about this endangered species. After seeing that their minds were fed enough, we carried on with our turn of asking them questions. Any student who was brave enough to try their luck was to put up their hand at the count of 3.

The answer is..

Unpacking the car

"reporting" to the headmistress

On the way to the hall

We split up in to two cars. We would like to thank Mr. Koay for his helpfulness in chauffeuring us to and fro from SK Bukit Gelugor. As soon as we reached, we went to "report" to the headmistress. She was given the official letter stating that we would like to carry out our campaign in her school. We proceeded to the hall where the Year 5 and Year 6 students were waiting for us.

En Nazri introducing us to the students

Great! They're paying attention

Doing our stuff

Doing her thing

Um....

Looking at our flyer

Signing the petition

At around 3 pm, we walked back to school and resumed campaigning in Menara Greenview condominium at 4. Thankfully, most of the occupants we met spoke English and they were all glad to help us. At this point, we'd enlisted the help of Ms. Jody Wong to help us carry stuff around. The residents were very happy to listen to us and we did our best to 'enlighten' them on the fact that orangutans are on the brink of extinction. Or in Hokkien as Rebekah so eloquently put it, "Ai Si Liao" meaning (in direct translation) 'Gonna die already'. 

And so, after yesterday's episode of interview break-in, we commenced our campaign in the primary school (a.k.a our sister school, i.e. SK Convent Green Lane) this morning.

It started off with their normal routine of singing a patriotic song before their teacher - in - charge introduced us to the assembly. One of our teacher advisors, Pn Gan, briefly explained to the primary students what our campaign was about.

Not too long ago, we left the primary school to start a new life in high school..and in the process, be introduced to Add Math, zits and the need for co - curricular marks... but that's beside the point. Just yesterday, three of our group members were given the chance to revisit the place of our childhood (okay so technically we haven't exactly become adults yet but hey, who wants to get technical right?). Entering the primary school was like a walk down memory lane but Rebekah, Lisa and Rachel (that's me!) were not about to be deterred by the fond memories of primary schooling. With one objective in mind, we proceeded to have our first encounter with the Penolong Kanan Hal Ehwal Murid (PKHEM for short) of SK CGL. Gathering our courage, we knocked on the office door.

At first, we had hoped to meet with an ex - teacher because having been a former student, it would have been easy to build rapport. But luck was not with us and the fearsome Ms. Jenny stared us down as we crossed the threshold. Smiling politely (to be truthful I guess we looked kinda nervous) we advanced to her desk only to be greeted with a curt "Yes? What do you want?". Flabbergasted at this crisp greeting, we managed to pull ourselves together enough to mumble incoherently. Thankfully, Rebekah 'came to her senses' and hurriedly started to explain our part in the campaign and what it was all about. As we relayed our purpose and conveyed as best as we could, how the students could be involved in the campaign and how it would greatly benefit the orangutans, Ms. Jenny gradually lost her edge and listened attentively to all we had to say. After we had finished describing the project, the formidable dragon - lady gave us the thumbs up and encouraged us to start campaigning in the primary school A.S.A.P. Lady Luck had apparently smiled on us after all and we left victorious at having overcome another hurdle.

Today, we went to see the primary headmistress not wanting it to seem that we had bypassed her and gone only to see the PKHEM (boy, would that have been a fiasco). We had come at an inopportune time and interrupted an interview. Mercifully, our teacher, Pn. Gan stepped in and did the talking for us. Soon after that, she rejoined us to say that we had the been given the go - ahead from Pn. Mariani. All smiles, we did not hesitate to thank her and returned in haste to our Add Math class.

And thus, we shall be enlightening our younger counterparts about our campaign tomorrow. Being able to involve them will definitely be a major step in our operation.

Ladies and gentlemen, be proud to meet, the saviours of the planet! As today was the official launching of our ‘for the love of orangutans’ campaign. During assembly, when everyone was ‘bright and awake’, Pn. Lim (that’s our beloved principal) was asked to inaugurate what was soon to be a vicious process of saving…. hopefully.