Earth Hour Singapore 2010

27th March 2010

Esplanade Park, Singapore

As the story told in another post of mine, I got Scouts involved in Earth Hour somehow. This year once again, I received a call from Carine Seror (Director, Corporate Responsibility & Earth Hour Project Manager, WWF Singapore) and asked whether are we interested in the partnership again. I didn't even hesitate and said, "Hell yea!" (well... not really but I did say yes.). And that's how the Singapore Scout Association became a supporting partner of Earth Hour Singapore for the second year running since Singapore officially observed Earth Hour in 2009.

This year I had a little more help as Oliver became my assistant. Likewise, we did the usual volunteer recruitment, briefing and team allocation. And of course without fail, we had a strong committee (made up of the National Rover Council and the Scouts of the World Award Task Team) that helps to oversee the smooth running of all the various sections.

On the day itself, most of the volunteers gathered early for our own briefing, then followed by WWF's. Once everyone knew what they are suppose to do, we collected our meal for an early dinner before we resumed our positions for the evening. The layout of the place was pretty much similar to last year, but  the programme began slightly earlier. Interestingly enough, first up was a yoga lesson which some of our Scouts joined in for some relaxation.

Around 6pm, the crowd started to come in. And to my surprise, a lot of them are actually Scouts! Last year we had Scouts turning up for the event but perhaps only a couple of hundreds. But this year, we had almost about 500 Scouts showing up to observe and celebrate Earth Hour! And that is apart from the 60 volunteers we had! Some of our commissioners also came down to give their support, and not forgetting our Chief Commissioner who was invited as a VIP to join in the opening of the the Earth Hour.

Photographs by Jacqueline Lau

The night was great, and everyone was enjoying themselves while helping out at the event.  While most of us were catching up with old friends or watching the performance, I was with the most important group of Scouts - the 'Black-out' team. This team consisted of a handful of last year's volunteers - veterans now I would call them. I was sending them off for the most important mission of the night - to black out the city skyline, all at the same time. And of course, they never failed me. In fact, they did an even better job than last year, as even mentioned by Carine herself. Darn I'm proud of them! Ain't that easy to black-out several buildings all at the same time (well unless you go to the plant and ask them to cut the electric supply...)!

At the end of the night, everyone was definitely tired, but had fun joining in the fun and helping out. As a small but well-deserved reward, each volunteer got an Earth Hour badge. The badges were kindly donated by an anonymous donor (but I realised the backing of the badge has his company logo! Hahaha!). As a tradition (even WWF knows), all the volunteers took a group photo against the stage with the city skyline in the background.

Photograph by Jacqueline Lau

Hurray for Earth Hour 2010! Are we ready for 2011?!