TOA PAYOH VETS
toapayohvets.com
Focus: Small
animals - dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits
Date:
16 July, 2007 |
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"Where's the funfair?" I asked the school's security guard as I did
not see any notice or banner outside the entrance gate of the Paya
Lebar Methodist Secondary School nor the adjoing Primary School.
Ms Lynda Goh, an
animal activist invited me to attend the fundraising for NANAS (Noah
Arks' Natural Animal Sanctuary).
I thought it would be a typical
school's funfair with lots of stalls and food. It was a hot
but sunny Jun 14, 2007 afternoon.
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"You mean the dogs?" the big woman security guard sat on her chair and
pointed to the school canteen.
At the corner of the canteen, I saw
tables with white plastic top and merchandise laid out manned by
student volunteers. It was nearly 2.30 pm when a very large crowd of
young ladies swarmed round the tables.
During my 1.5 hours' observation, this fundraising was successful in
that there were crowds of students.
I will comment on the operational factors for
the benefit of any group who does fundraising to help the animals in
need of funds.
1. CREATING AWARENESS
As this is a in-house affair, no external gate notice was necessary to
attract outsiders or passers-by. A lecture on animal abuse was given
by Lynda earlier. |
2. WHITE BOARD LAYOUT
The advertisement was a white board to the left side of the sales
area. The sales area consisted of a table for the laptop and photo
printer and the other tables formed in a L-shaped layout for sales of
merchandise.
2.1 "Fund Raising" should be written as "Fundraising".
English can be a difficult language to master as I also used two words
instead of one in my picture caption.
2.2 The layout of the advertisement is important to
provide information efficiently and effectively. Before I took the
picture of the white board for this article, the animal painting was
covered by a black T-shirt and an A4 paper listing the price of the
merchandise.
2.3 I took away the A4 paper and removed part of the tape sticking the
T-shirt so that I could take an unobstructed view of the animal
painting. This animal painting would be best positioned on the top
left corner of the white board. The NANAS pictures and text would be
placed on the left 1/3 of the white board so that the reader needed
not look for the extreme right hand side of the white board to read
the rest of the story. |
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The A4 paper listing prices of products (I stuck it at the bottom of
the white board to take this picture), the "Photo With Dog" price list
(near the Canon printer), the T-shirt and other matters would be
positioned to the middle and right 1/3 of the white board.
The bottom part of the white board would still have the date and time
in large letters as shown. "Help the animals" wordings might be more
easily read if the words were in black ink.
3. TAKING PHOTO WITH A DOG. This service was not well
publicised as the A4 paper listing the fees were in light blue words.
The paper was taped onto the back of the laptop which is used for
picture processing. You might be able to see this advertisement in the
picture.
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It would be better for the service table to be located in between the
two tables selling merchandise so that there was greater awareness of
this unique service which other fundraising events would not have.
4. The ELECTRICAL WIRE might need to be covered by
tape. There was an electricity supply interruption during the printing
one photo. The photo had to be discarded.
5. ADULT DOGS USED. Puppies should never be used for
fundraising because they usually cannot take the stress of crowds and
handling. Certain breeds like Chihuahua puppies are are likely to pass
blood in watery stools and die, if they are exposed to crowds, in my
experience of some cases.
The adult dogs enjoyed the low work load. They seem to enjoy the
attention of posing in the shady garden nearby. One Miniature
Dachshund had her beauty nap on a chair while sales business was being
conducted. Was she not having sufficient work?
6. INSTANT PHOTOS. The use of an almost
instant printing of photo service using the Canon printer
belong to animal activist Lynda was a brilliant idea. This saved time
and expenses in having to post pictures to prospects. |
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7. AN EXPERIENCED DOG PHOTOGRAPHER volunteer. Mr
Nicholas Lee, a dog photographer was not full time but he took perfect
pictures of students and dogs. Without him, the technology would be
useless.
8. A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. A variety of merchandise to
attract buyers as you can see from the pictures. I bought a writing
pad, a T-shirt and a dog picture. I wanted to buy a story book about
the work of NANAS rather than a writing pad with pages to be torn out.
What better way to create market awareness than telling newbies what
NANAS is all about and its history since its founding in 1995? 12
years had passed by and many achievements would be of great interest
to animal lovers.
Overall, I sensed that there was great fun from the noisy secondary
school students. The 3 dogs and the students including 3 adult
teacher assistants enjoyed the fundraising.
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LINKS:
1.
asiahomes.com
2.
sinpets.com
3.
Singapore's small animal vets directory sponsored by
asiahomes.com |
4. Community Education:
Be Kind To Pets
5.
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Revised: July 16, 2007 |
