Intel Involved: Labour Day of Love for the Earth

Celebrating 40 Years of Changing the World
by David Chung 15 May 2008

2008 is the International Year of the Reef (IYOR), celebrated worldwide to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability. So, as part of Intel’s 40th anniversary celebrations, a group of Intel Singapore employees from CPLG, Finance & IT and their families turned our Labor Day holiday into a labor of love for the Earth. Together, we volunteered in a variety of activities at Chek Jawa – a wetlands nature reserve tucked away on Pulau Ubin, an island off the north-eastern coast of the main concrete jungle of Singapore (details below).

We teamed-up with a group of passionate nature enthusiasts, as well as a community of home-schooled children & their families, forming a contingent of over 100 volunteers. The naturalists that guided us inspired us with their love & respect for our natural environment. The home-schooled kids inspired us with their enthusiasm and abundant curiosity. And in return, Intel inspired them with our grand goal of one million volunteer hours.

Photos by Peggy Khoo
Photos by Ria Tan (WildSingapore)

The Details
So, what did we actually do?

1) We reached out to visitors as Dugong Ambassadors, sharing with them fun facts about this endangered creature (and learning for ourselves along the way). What’s a dugong? What do dugongs have to do with Singapore? (Click on these links to find out more) And thanks to professional artist/nature-guide Andrew Tay, each volunteer received a beautiful badge with a custom logo designed by him for this occasion.

2) We cleared bagsful of trash from the shore, and got a sobering reminder about waste and pollution – styrofoam and plastic bags really do stick around forever; nasty! You’d be amazed at the kinds of unexpected trash that wash up along our shores… just join one of these trash-clearing expeditions during low tide and you’ll see what we mean.

3) We painted a mural at House No. 1 – the visitor center at Chek Jawa. Why a mural? Good public art says something about the community. It says: this is who we are - this is what we think - this is where we came from - this is what we want. Murals show the concerns, hopes, values and memories of the community where the murals are painted. We hope this mural conveys to future visitors our pride and love for our environment and the wonderful biodiversity of the sea and shores around Singapore (video link).

Learn More

Read more about the event at these blogs:
http://flyingfishfriends.blogspot.com/2008/04/chek-jawa-may-day-outreach-unveils-2008.html
http://iyor08singapore.blogspot.com/2008/04/dugong-ambassadors-for-may-day-outreach.html
http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/05/shore-extravaganza-dugong-ambassadors.html

This event was also featured in a newspaper report in the May 11th issue of the local Chinese daily《联合早报》
Thanks!

Thanks to the CPLG, Finance & IT leadership teams for funding this event out of our Q2 team building budget, and adopting it as our quarterly team event J

CPLG: Cai Ding Zheng and Mel Davies
· CPLG sponsored the painting materials

Finance: Kristin Lim, Ravi Rao and Jeffrey Phua
· Finance sponsored the transportation to Pulau Ubin and Chek Jawa, and the Dugong ambassador badges

IT: Satish Kumar and Chang Tsann
· IT paid for the snacks and drinks that fed more than 100 people

And a big thanks to Peggy Khoo & the Intel Involved Singapore team for making this possible!