YFC Reflections

YFC 2013 is officially over. I must say that I've learnt the most from YFC as it was PW in action. Though it was tiring, I enjoyed this journey as I've learnt many valuable life lessons from my friends, teachers and volunteers.

 

Well, I was the treasurer/secretary of the group and I must say that it isn't fun to handle money. By the way, I think that I'm pretty good at this job. Though I'm not very systematic and am really forgetful, I learnt that I've to be really alert and systematic to ensure that I will not make any mistakes when updating our I&E statement. I was really stressed because its money and I cannot afford to lose any money. Not only that, I've learnt many communication skills and logistics skills. I've also learnt a lot from my teammates and I'm extremely grateful to be able to have Ngan, Denise and Evan as my teammates. Each of us have different strengths and weaknesses. Such as Ngan, our creative director, who is able to do the publicity of the project. Evan, our event manager, who oversees the street sales. Denise, our boss, who directs us what to do. I'm really glad that we are able to tap on each of our strengths to raise funds for the Lions Club of Goodwood Singapore. In addition through this project, I learnt to be bold, have a thick skin and big smile. Nothing is impossible. I still remember vividly that we got rejected by khong guan 3 times but our persistence finally paid off as we managed to get sponsorship. Every time when I look back, I really wondered what will happen to us if we didn't manage to get the sponsorship of 2500 packets of 80g of ice gems from Khong Guan. Will this project fail before we even start?  I'm really grateful and thankful that they've agreed to sponsor us. (By the way, I love their biscuits. Especially the ice gems lol). The rationale for ice gems was on the concept of relieving past memories.
My team had learn to be as CHEAPO as possible. We spent 1/8 of our seed funding of $1600 because we used recycled boards for our publicity and ensured that we used popular cards whenever we purchase something from popular. We even printed some of our posters using the free printing service in our school because we want our VWO benefit from this financially. Arguing over prices and what to let go and what to not let go was a difficulty. We had to differentiate between a want and a need. (This is really useful to me right now because my spending reduced greatly.)
The funds we raised will be donated to the lions homes for the elders and during this journey, my teammates and I have went to visit the home for a greater insight so that we could better advocate our cause to the public.

Though I must say that the funds we raised isn't probably enough to buy a machine to lift the bedridden, my team hope that we could contribute in someway or another. We've also learnt that some of the elderly or the bedridden there do not have family members and that simple company will do. I don't want to sound like a hypocrite because I did not volunteer at their homes but I've MYMCA's big sweep to do in which we go to the elderly's house to accompany them once a month. Though I don't think its sufficient but this year just caught up with me due to PROMOS, PW and YFC. That I almost died. This project had given me insights on the costs of healthcare in which I realized that machines are really not cheap after all and hence I shouldn't be spending money frivolously. I also learnt a lot from the public as we've to have really thick skin to be able to advocate for our cause and to ask for donations.
Despite being rejected by the public many times even before approaching them, I learnt that we cannot give up especially when we were so determined to raise as much funds as possible for the homes. Though some might be skeptical as to whether its real despite the license, I'm still grateful that they've donated because if that was me, I wouldn't have donated and would have went straight for the QR code.
As I reflect, I feel that there were areas that we could work better on and that we shouldn't avoid in any way. Firstly, we didn't prepare for the worst situation. We were just banking on sponsorship and I learnt that we should have an alternative and ALWAYS have an alternative solution to what we are doing. Next, we shouldn't keep focusing on the funds but instead of bringing the message across which I hope to be able to guide my juniors in this aspect. Lastly, lack of volunteers. Lack of volunteers would mean lack of public outreach and lack of people to help to raise funds. We could have a better recruitment drive for volunteers. I hope that my team and I could guide our juniors so that they would not make the same mistake as us so that YFC would be a meaningful project for everyone involved in one way or another.
I will certainly miss having late night group Skype session with my team members in which we argue for hours over location, logistics and many more.(I remember denise having to take the ukulele to get attention to stop us from fighting) Our street sales range from east coast park to bishan to orchard to raffles place to helix bridge and the school. Though it was not easy (Imagine waking up to see 84 boxes of icegems... scrap that... 15 boxes of ice gems in front of you), I'm glad that each and everyone of us manage to pull through tough times and that we were able to get through this journey together as a team. (Our whatsapp group changed to.... 2014 Honorroll: CORE) I will not forget the valuable lessons that I've learnt as I've certainly grown through this year.

Looking ahead, I still have to be able to contribute to this community in the future by volunteering in one way or another. Though it will not probably in terms of fund raising, I hope that I will still be able to help them by communicating to them. I guess it will probably be after Alevels because I'm actually starting to freak out when the teachers kept emphasizing on EXTREMELY BUSY year and the IMPORTANCE OF ALEVELS.
My new task force is Team Building camp 2014 in which I hope to make a difference in the juniors lives and that this camp will be a success in teaching them how to be a servant leader and more importantly, an advocate.