ECG Flag Day

I helped out in a flag day yesterday, organised by the Epilepsy Care Group of Singapore. My school publicised this event to us, so I signed up for it along with my 2 classmates. :D We chose the 3.30pm slot, which was the third and last slot, and I was glad we did because I wouldn’t want to wake up early in the morning, haha.

We met up at Newton MRT, and wanted to walk to the building along Dunearn Road where the organisation is located. Apparently, both of them depended on me to get there, which I expected they would, so I checked the map before coming. According to the map, we were supposed to walk along the road where the MRT station is, and turned left into Dunearn Road.

But LOL, when we exited the station, there were two directions to choose from, which were both along the road, but I chose the wrong one… We walked for quite a distance but couldn’t find a Dunearn Road on the left. So we continued and ended up at Far East Plaza, hahahaha.

Eventually, we realised our mistake, and finally got to the venue at about 2.50pm, 20 minutes late. :\ The organisation is located at a very old and dilapidated building… Quite eerie, I must say, haha. We signed in, and were given our tins and stickers. We were allocated to Harbourfront (yay!), and we had to make our own way there. :\

When we got there, because we weren’t allowed to solicit for donations in the shopping centre, i.e. Vivocity, we had to venture out. There were a few entrances to Vivocity, so we went to one of them, and started our flag day. I had some experience, so I made the first move, haha. And I succeeded – $2! LOL, how generous of that lady (if I didn’t remember wrongly…).

Then both of them also started, and had decent performance too. Eventually, we settled at the main entrance (I think), and tried our best to get as much donations as we could. That’s because… the top 3 collectors would each win $20, hahaha. Among the 3 of us, my success rate seemed to be the highest – as high as 70% based on what I feel – which is surprising… I thought Singaporeans are normally stingy? Probably Singaporeans at Vivocity are anomalies, hahaha. So, my tin was the heaviest among us. Haha, but it could be that I got more coins while they got more notes… so they shouldn’t be sore about it!

I made some observations and had some encounters during the 3+ hours of soliciting. :)

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#1: Smokers are willing to internalise their negative externalities

Well, I found smokers quite willing to donate. I think the success rate was as high as 90%. They were loitering around a corner at the open space outside the entrance, so I targetted them. I hate smoke, but I of course couldn’t cover my nose and/or mouth while speaking to them, so I bore with it. Haha. I guess they are guilty for harming others with second-hand smoke so they are more generous? xD

#2: Parents with small kids tend to donate

Somehow, parents like to give some coins to their little kids and ask them to drop into the tin. I encountered such parents quite often, so I also targetted such families as much as possible, haha. I also enjoyed interacting with the kids. I held the tin to their height to let them drop the coins. Then, I asked them to get a sticker, haha. They were very cute! :)

#3: Peer pressure rocks

Haha, groups of friends are good targets too. Most of the time, when one person donates, his/her friends will also donate too. I guess it’s due to peer pressure? Or birds of a feather flock together – they are friends because they are all generous people? Hahaha. xD

#4: Angmohs are stingy…

Success rate for angmohs was as low as 10%. :\ And I thought they are more generous than Singaporeans. -.-

#5: A foreigner donated $10!

The highest amount donated by one person was $10! Haha. He is a foreigner but I couldn’t tell which country he is from, but he is not angmoh, haha. When he opened his wallet, I saw many notes – mostly $10 and $50. He just took out one $10 note without even batting his eyelid. Hmmm… xD

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Haha, the afternoon/evening was well spent. I enjoyed myself though, which I never thought I would have, but it was probably of the good company I had (thanks!). xD I hope I win $20 though… hahahaha.