Looking for Volunteers: EcOasis - Getting your hands dirty

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 8:08 AM

PS: Please help forward this to as many people you think might be interested as possible.

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ECO Singapore Speech (With ENRICH! Video Clip)

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 8:43 AM

Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Sponsors
Friends

I would first like to thank the Minister for taking time off his normally hectic schedule, now his doubly hectic schedule, to be with us this afternoon for the groundbreaking ceremony of the EcOasis.

The EcOasis a good example of what can be achieved in a partnership between government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector united in a common purpose.

To this end, I would like to thank the Singapore Science Centre for their support in providing the site for this unique and meaningful project.

I would also like to thank all our sponsors for all their support and encouragement.

This project was conceived in 2006 as a tangible showcase for environmental technologies. Located in the Eco Garden, the EcOasis will be useful as an educational platform for casual visitors and teachers bringing their students to the SSC for field trips.

In addition to its use as an ad hoc educational platform for casual visitors, the EcOasis will also be part of ECO Singapore’s Enrich! Environmental Foundation Programme, which will be launched next month. This half to one-day customised programme, intended for students from Primary Five to Secondary Four, will highlight fundamental issues on sustainable living. Comprising six modules, it will complement and reinforce what students are already learning in school subjects like geography, science and social studies, while weaving these subjects together within an environmental context.

I would now like to share with you a short video clip on what an Enrich! Programme offers to students.

(Video of Enrich! Programme being screened as below)



I am delighted to announce that ECO Singapore will offer this programme to schools without charge in 2008.

Thank you very much.

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ECO House: EcOasis Ground Breaking Ceremony

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 9:03 PM

Today is the day!

Here are some picture shots of the event.

Above: Completed ECO House Model

Below: Technologies that can be found in the ECO House:






Turn Out for the Ground Breaking Ceremony:



Speeches:




Explaining the ground breaking procedures and its meaning:



GOH and Sponsors doing their part to plant the "Stud" plants that will eventually be on the Green Roof:




Mitsubishi Explaining about their PV Cells:

BCA Explaining the concept and reason for green buildings:

Sharing more about the Green Roof and how it works also as a rain water harvesting system:



Guests being explained by the volunteers on the expected ECO House and its components:


Well done team!

Debrief at the end of the day.

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One day BEFORE the Ground Breaking Ceremony

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 11:55 PM

The tension starts to build up. We are working hard on a couple of things for the ground breaking:

1. Final Stages of the model for display on the ECO House.

We were still running to buy some last minute materials for the ECO House on some touch up part. Both Joelle, Jiajia and myself did this until about 11.40pm at night. Way past Joelle's bedtime. By the time we were done, she was really whacked.


NB: Well, we WERE watching Heroes Season 1 while we were doing the model. :)


2. Checklist on all possible guests that will be down.
Have invited friends and partners whom we are in touch with. Who have been supportive of ECO Singapore's activities and has keen interest in what we do. Thou this was a humble event, they were very forth coming and supportive about what we do. A total of 35 Guests were confirm. This list does not include staff from the Science Centre and our volunteers from both ECO Singapore end as well as Tanglin Secondary School.

3. Certificate of appreciation to all sponsors.
The frame for the certificates finally arrived at the Brash Basah Complex Porpular bookshop! We went to collect it. But when we reached, it was closed! We had to buy the next day.

4. Editing of the video footage that was done on Friday to be shown during the launch.
Here is the first cut which we had to work on:



Total of 4mins 15 seconds. It would be too long and it is. Ryal went down to Christine's place to help do the edit. We have to reduce to at least HALF of it.

5. Confirmation if there is any press at all to cover this event.
This is a mile stone event for us. And as much as possible, we hope to be able to get some coverage about the project. Thou there is no physical structure, we really look forward to have media coverage to share more about this project and hopefully this will help us raise mroe awareness about our humble project and find more sponsors for this initiative.

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A Facebook note...

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU at 6:29 AM

Title:

ECO House: EcOasis Ground Breaking Ceremony

Dear All,

We are proud to share that tomorrow afternoon at 3pm, at the Singapore Science Centre ECO Garden, we will have the ground breaking event for the ECO House: EcOasis.

This humble project has been brewing for a long time between volunteer young architects, engineers, marketeers and various individual from different walks of life. It has came a long way and finally, we are going to see it take shape starting tomorrow.

The event will be graced by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister for Finance and Minister for Education.

This project is a milestone for us, ECO Singapore as a whole which YOU are part of, because the ground breaking marks the beginning of this unique project bringing together various partners from the public and private sectors.

Last but not least, the essence of its becoming are the relentless efforts by the youth.

For those who are interested to learn about the progress of it, please feel free to visit it at:
http://www.eco-singapore.org/ecohouse/index.html

We hope the story of ECO House: EcOasis will inspire more of you to realize that dreams can come true if you stick to it and believe in it, and along the way be willing to learn and adapt to changes.

Alot of challenging situation and decisions were made, but it was all worth it.


VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY:
Starting tomorrow, we will be going forward to BUILD the ECO House. We will need all the manpower we can get to help out and the commitment level will start somewhere end Feb till end Apr where the ECO House is targeted to be completed. and YOU can play a big part.

- Hands On volunteers
To help in the MAKING of the ECO House. For those who want to ge your hands dirtied and also improve on the ECO House internal components.

- Volunteer ECO Trainers
You will be trained to bring children through the ECO House and the ENRICH! Program that will be held at the Singapore Science Centre ECO Garden.

Interested? Email to volunteer@eco-singapore.org

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Two days BEFORE Ground Breaking Ceremony

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 1:11 AM

Two days before the Ground Breaking and we have a whole list of things that still needs to get done. Visiting Mr Richard Tan from Enviro Space on the ground breaking ceremony planting for the GOH and sponsors.

Upon reaching down to discuss about it, realized that there was a need for help on the plants. Mr Tan needed help to prepare it.

Mr Tan brought me around to see the green roofs and walls he has designed. Also, he also showed the green roof cross section.

Here is a short clip:

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Model Making for Ground Breaking

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 3:17 AM

Jia jia and Joelle are rushing over the weekend to build up a model of the ECO House at Joelle's place for the ground breaking ceremony.


Above: Joelle cutting the part of the roof structure.



Above: Jia Jia making the Green Walls of the ECO House.


Above: Both Jia jia and Joelle concentrating hard on the model to make sure it looks good.




Above: Short Video on the new ECO House model for the ground breaking ceremony.

As time approaches to THE ground breaking ceremony, we are getting all excited. This has indeed been a very long journey for us to make it this far.

Next thing to get prepared if the ground breaking METHOD. To allow our GOH and sponsors to do something symbolic and meaningful for the initiation of this project.

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Floor Space Marking

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 2:55 AM

Today marks a very significant day of our ECO House building. At least to me.

The contractors are down at the site today to do some testing if there are any cables below the site that we will be doing the piling for the building of our structure.

And also, the contractor also marked out the floor space of the ECO House. The exact location. As we watch the contractor slowly placing the pegs onto the floor, a sense of satisfaction was felt down the spine. We have finally made it this far. The gush of excitement and immerse satisfaction went to my head. We are seeing the fruits of our labour coming into shape. Our perseverance made it through, we are on our way to build the first ever youth led ECO House in Singapore.

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