The Inaugural Singapore Red Cross Awards Ceremony

Hi All, we are already entering the final week of the internship. Hope we all finish on a happy note!

As my title suggests, I am going to talk about the Inaugural Singapore Red Cross Awards Ceremony, it is basically an event that recognises the contributions of volunteers and partners of the Singapore Red Cross. On this day, a total of 29 awards were given out and the most important factor to the Red Cross was that the President of Singapore was the guest of honour. This is also only the second time the President of Singapore has visited the Red Cross House, the first being Yusof Ishak, the first president of Singapore in the 1960s.

Picture of Yusof Ishak visiting in the 1960s.

Preparations for this event took place from 2012. I only joined in May 2013 and I was thrown into preparations mode. Firstly I had to write the Emcee script which to me, was quite a challenge as my boss kept wanting me to add more 'meat' or content in this case. I also had to write the programme outline and ensure it matched the Emcee script. Proofreading the programme booklet and exhibition panels were no easy task as we had to make changes with the designers many times and yet when they were delivered, the exhibition boards were the wrong size.

Why were the boards the wrong size? They were supposed to be A1 and they came in A0, twice the size of panels we had bought. Thus what did we have to do? We had to paste them on the walls. In total five Females pasted 30 panels top and bottom on the walls of what was initially the staff lounge in three hours.

Our hard work in three hours.

There was a heritage tour planned for the president as well as for the awards recipients, thus these were some of the exhibitions.

 An acrylic mural and a photo wall of past events that involved Red Cross.

Below, we have the stage of where the awards are given out.

It is actually smaller than a school stage but as the staff like to put it, it is very cosy.

Public Relations wise, we had prepared a press kit to be given out to the media that was attending. Though coverage was not as expected, more importantly was that we were able to recognise the veteran volunteers and partners contributions to the Singapore Red Cross.

The press kit given out to the Media.

My role throughout the even was with the Stage Team and I had to assist my leader in coordinating the award recipients on stage. This was because I had a part in writing the programme outline thus I knew it very well and was able to control the flow of the ceremony. Though I had no role with public relations on this event, it has made me think that perhaps events are what I would like to do one day cause its like seeing something you worked so hard for come to life and I feel that not everyone can do that. More importantly was that I had great colleagues and bosses along the way and we left no man or woman behind.

This sums up my third week and I cannot wait to enjoy the final week.

Thanks for reading!
Jacquelyn Woo
Curtin Singapore
15658504