A couple of months ago, Adrian rounded up some of his kakis for a booth at the Assisi Hospice Charity Fun Day. We sold bags, books, kaya toast, home-baked bread, coffee, cookies and knick-knacks.
I dragged myself out of my flu-induced lethargy and by the time I reached St. Joseph’s Institution International at Thomson Rd, Adrian’s last minute inspiration, hot coffee, had sold quite well. He had meant it to play a supportive role to the kaya toast, but there was a demand for it in the morning at $1/shot! Many wanted iced-coffee as well so we filed that idea away for next year. As the day wore on, iced-water too would have sold well in the heat.
Harley’s ride up with Ms Ho Ching (patron of Assisi Hospice) and the VIP trainI guess at a charity event, buyers are much more reckless than they would be at a pasar malam. And much more so in the last couple of hours! The books we had brought down sold surprisingly well, even some old texts. I did suggest Tom Clancy’s Red Rabbit be given away free, though, since it was so awful. I bought a few books myself to give away and regretted not recruiting more titles I know are cluttering up the bookshelves of friends. It would get some good books back into circulation, and all for charity too! We slashed prices for some titles that were not moving initially and Ivan reported one couple’s disbelief at an old children’s encyclopedia going for $4. They recovered enough to buy it.
Bags that Oi Yee, Peck Wai and others contributed were attacked the moment the lads unloaded the stuff and would continue to move quite well through the day. With one bag, however, we decided we would try our luck with Yahoo SG Auction since it was supposed to be a genuine Gucci bag. Ladybug will be trying for something more ambitious than $5.
Amy’s home-made bread was actually expensive but selling off whole loaves was actually not the money-maker we thought it would be. In the form of Kaya Toast slices, however, it was a much better income earner. One late sale had the chap request for an extra thick layer of kaya – he had a satisfying sandwich!
The cookies Adrian and kids made were all sold out in the afternoon. Tom did quite a good hard-sell on those that worked surprisingly well.
Tom hard-selling kaya toast with free samples and it worked!Ladybug too was really good at sales and I kept popping coupons into the tin with disbelief. It was almost a non-stop process after a brief lunch time lull. She and Su Yin (who had trooped down for the second shift) got into the act with the ladies to direct them to the scarves and other miscellaneous odds and ends. It was surprising how well all that worked. At one point we scrambled to find something to wrap an ornamental koi that someone bought and grabbed some mahjong paper nearby! Natalie, who was handling the dress sales and the tough job of bargaining, had a much tougher time but when the deals were sealed, those raked in a pretty penny!
I met my uni classmates Veronica, Patrick, and Jaswant amongst others. Johnny Wee trucked by regularly with camera and his signature grin, and later was seen hauling fruit loads away! The atmosphere was fun and there was lots of really good food around. I loved the excellent gado-gado being sold by some charming and feisty aunties. We saw one of them wandering around later and she reported they had sold out their entire stock!
Jaswant checking out the kid’s VCDsThere were 150 stalls and games and performances as well. It was a charming event with lots of pleasant people waylaying you but without much pressure. Exactly the right sort of environment to get you to spend! At one point Ladybug ended up buying some expensive chips from some eager-eyed school kids. I found myself refilling our coupon stocks a few more times.
The cookies were all sold out in the afternoon.It was certainly a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning! We helped claw the way towards the half-million target and hopefully with the many great stalls and corporate donors, they’ll meet their target. It was a good initiative by Adrian who SMSed later to say, “alrightee man, it feels great, kakis and all helping out … Super rustic kind of feel”
Update – Photos from Adrian’s camera.
The office of Student Affairs sent an email informing the NUS community about fund-raising efforts by students from the NUSSU Volunteer Actions Committee (NVAC), for the Myanmar Cyclone Nargis victims. This is being conducted as part of Project Nargis, “a community service network set up by student volunteers from NUS Project Pinnya Tazaung Myanmar, Operation Nargis, the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and the Singapore Management University (SMU).” 
With the scorching sun making me nervous about coping during the upcoming bike rally, I revisited information from previous rides this morning, including:
Otterman speaks... 