Set off from home at bout 8.15am ytd morn and headed down to Farrer Park to meet up with Ming Yang for our scheduled Metro- SIF Cip at City Square Mall. Was supposed to meet at 9.30am but got there way ahead of time at 8.55am. Sat down at the Mrt platform area to wait for 9.30 to crawl by. At about 9.25am, Ming yang called me and informed me that he was alr in City Square Mall. Therefore I went over by myself. Upon meeting Ming yang realised that Chee koon had fever and would not be coming.
After that we reported to the security there and they brought us to Metro at lvl 3 where we waited for 10am to arrive. We placed our bags with the security and waited in a sort of staff lounge. At about 10.15, Xue Min and Hui Min and Joy arrived. While we were to be stationed at the mall's Atrium, the girls will be in Metro itself. We were then given a short briefing and given tags before being dispatched. Donations were to be for funding the education of needy Indonesian children.
After we got to the Atrium, we started setting up and decorating our booth with the gifts that we were supposed to give out. Minimum $2 donation and you get a Metro voucher booklet. Minimum of $5 and you get a Metro voucher booklet and either a pencil holder or drawstring pouch. Throughout all this, we realised that some items such as the drawstring pouches and voucher booklets were missing and so had to run up and down to the second floor countless times. Finally, we were ready to request for donations.
The first lady I approached was just browsing through some Metro Christmas items on sale around our booth. She was a non- Chinese and so I was feeling a little nervous as I approached her and explained to her what we were doing and requested for a donation. I think she intended to make a donation of $2 but she took out a $10 note and asked for change. However, after some thought, she donated $10 instead! Wow.. so generous! And the FIRST donation that I got.. TEN dollars! I then brought the $ back to the booth and dropped it into the donation box.
Took the $ back and dropped it into the donation box? Smth's not right. Oh.. I was supposed to bring her to the donation box and have her drop the $ in herself. We were not to handle the $. I made a mental note to rmb that, hoping no one had seen it. I then went back to her and passed her the voucher booklet and then got back to the booth. I then rmbed that she was also entitled to choose either a drawstring pouch or pencil holder with a $10 donation. I therefore went and brought her to the booth for a selection.
After that, things sort of quietened down as it was still quite early for a Monday morning and most people are either at work or still at home. Approached some passers-by and requested for donations. At first I decided to describe our beneficiaries, give them a background of what we were doing and then ask for donations. However, this proved to be futile as most ppl just walked away after I started speaking to them. Therefore, I changed it to "For only $2 you get a voucher booklet to shop at Metro" After that, I even changed it to "You get a voucher booklet for only $2", hoping that it will get their interest if they hear of the voucher booklet first. It worked!
After that, more ppl started donating. Most gave $2 while some gave $5 or $6. There were some who were quite friendly, like a lady who came over and joked with us before making a donation and then called her friends over to help in choosing an item. Then there was another lady who brought along two daughters and chatted with us as well. After making a donation, she then had her daughters choose an item. These were the few friendlier and humourous ones. Most others were colder towards us.
As I stood at the booth and observed, I realised that there seemed to be a 5-metre "force field" around our booth. Why do I say that? Ppl walking in our direction will make a huge detour around our booth just to get across. Then there were others who sped up suddenly when walking past our booth. Hahas... it was really humurous! Anyways, I still continued to approach passers- by.
After that at about 12pm, went for a quick lunch at 'Banquet' and met an aunt there. Said she will visit our booth later. Finished off with my chicken rice and left. Got back to the booth in 15mins. Then Ming Yang went for his lunch break.
My aunt came over with her friends after a little while and made a donation. After that she also gave me $10 for a meal later. Hahas.. how generous of her. A few other ppl came over to make donations as well and collected about $13 by the time Ming yang returned.
At that time it was about 1.15pm. We were starting to get bored. Although the human traffic started to increase as it was lunch break for most ppl, donations were coming in much slower. When approached for a donation, most of them declined. The ppl who donated were really minimal, almost to the point of zero. However, we were lucky coz our booth was located just beside the escalator landing so there was a continuous stream of ppl passing by our booth. Furthermore, there was a statue of a Santa Claus beside our booth where many children posed for pictures. We then grabbed the opportunity to get their parents to donate some $.
About 1 hour before the change of shift at 2.00pm, there were literally no more donations coming in. We got really sianzz, bored and tired as we have been standing for almost 4 hours alr. Although we still approached passers- by around our booth, most declined donating with a slight nod of their heads and with a smile. Although I do appreciate their courteousy in declining, it would have been better if they donated even just $2. Besides, it was quite comical to see them nod and then just walk off. "You get a voucher booklet for only $2, will you like to donate?" then, nod, and then walk off. Zzzz... it's like I get the feeling that they dun noe what nodding means. lols!
After that time really crawled, slower than a caterpillar crawling. We were counting down the minutes, then the seconds... really couldn't wait for 3.00pm to arrive.
Finally, finally... it was time to change shift. We went to return our tags and I went to buy some swimming caps at a 20% discount that we were entitled to. Went back downstairs and saw the girls at our booth. Apparently they had signed on for two consecutive shifts. Wow... so on eh! Can tahan 10 hours standing lols! For us, 5 hours was too much liaoz!
This really gave me an experience of what ppl at Mrt stations collecting donations have to go through.
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