Nature Walk at Sungei Buloh

On Deepavali, we brought some friends to visit Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. This eco park is great for observing nature and watching migratory birds such as the hornbills and kingfishers, as well as otters, butterflies and insects. If you think Singapore is boring, get off the couch and get outdoors and enjoy nature!

For more info, visit their website at www.sbwr.org.sg

Enhancing the butterfly habitat @ Tampines Eco Green (Part II)

We are planting another batch of butterfly attracting plants again at Tampines Eco Green this time!  Volunteers are needed to help us on 3rd November (Saturday).  We estimated that the planting session will end around 1 pm.

Meeting venue: Tampines MRT station control
Time: 9.30 am (please be punctual)

Email to Grant (grant@singapore.com) if you can help. :)

Please bring your own drinking water and hat as the weather can be very hot with very little shelter at the park.

We have volunteers young and old!

Our youngest volunteers!

Ehanching the butterfly habitat @ Tampines Eco Green

We are in need of volunteers who are available to help us with planting butterfly attracting plants at Tampines Eco Green on Saturday 29th September 2012.

There are several butterfly attracting plants to be planted at Tampines Eco Green!  We will first meet at Tampines MRT station and then walk over to Tampines Eco Green.  We should finish planting by noon time and also depends on how many volunteers we have on that day.

Meeting venue: Tampines MRT station

Time: 9.30 am (please be punctual)

To prevent dehydration, please bring your own drinking water and hat. :)

Email: grant@singapore.com

See you!

"He who plants a tree, plants a hope."

                                                                 - Lucy Larcom

Free nature guided walk @ Fort Canning Park

The Green Volunteers is proud to facilitate the nature guided walk at Fort Canning Park on Saturday, 8th September during the school holidays for FREE!

Venue: Fort Canning Park, meeting venue Fort Canning Visitor's centre
Time: 4 - 5.30 pm

Email to register: nurul_asyiqin_jaffar@nparks.gov.sg  (Please indicate your mobile contact number)

Come and learn more about the trees at the Fort!
 

Volunteers Wanted

We always need volunteers to help out at our butterfly gardens at Pasir Ris Park and also at the schools. If you're keen to get your hands dirty, please contact Grant at 9684 0950 or grant@singapore.com so he can let you know the details.

We also want those who are keen to be nature guides as we have lots of visitors who are keen to know more about the butterflies and plants.

See some pictures of the families and kids who came on 23 June 2012. As you can see, any age is welcome! Kids can have fun and learn about nature, along with the adults :)

Social Creatives Fundraising Day on 5 August

In conjunction with Singapore National Day, Social Creatives - a non-profit arts charity - aims to bring creativity and vibrancy to the streets of Singapore on 5 August 2012 Sunday, in their flag day fundraising activity. There will be 5 face painting stations and donation bags points at Orchard, Kallang, Pasir Ris, Jurong East and Newton MRT stations. Volunteers are encouraged to come in colourful outfits and have their faces painted there! The public can show their support by donating to the donation bags on 5 August.


Projects that need your support:
Void Deck Art Galleries:
- Educating and promoting Arts to the Heartlands, funding will be used to create more Void Deck art galleries in Singapore
- One-room HDB Flats:
Painting and decorating homes for the needy, funding will support such projects.
- Youth-At-Risk:
Art programmes for the youth for free or subsidized rates.
- Art Murals:
Murals are painted to add more colour and vibrancy. Corporate engagements are funded, but charity
engagements need to be sponsored.

Charities they help:
Student Advisory Centre
Children Society
Riding for the Disabled Association
Singapore Christian Home for the Aged
Spastic Children Association
Life Community Services
Moral Family Service Centre (Bukit Panjang)
Society for the Aged Sick
Joy Centre Neighbourhood link
Operation Renewal (Singapore)
AIN Society
Youth Guidance Outreach Services
Toa Payoh Senior Citizen's Health Care Centre
Geylang East Home for the Aged
and more...

About Social Creatives:
Social Creatives is a non-profit arts charity that aims to promote art with a purpose and do
community art. They hope to make Singapore and society colourful both visually but more
importantly emotionally. Through promoting public arts appreciation in a collective effort in
addressing the gaps of society. Visit www.socialcreatives.com

Add colour to Singapore as a volunteer to fundraise on 5 August 2012!
Email amanda@socialcreatives.com or simran@socialcreatives.com with these info:
a) Name
b) NRIC
c) Contact Number
d) Preferred Time Session and Location
e) Total Number of Participants (If participating in a group)

Butterfly Show & Tell

On 28 July 2012 Saturday, we are invited by NParks to give a Butterfly Garden Show and Tell segment  at Pasir Ris Park, Carpark C. There are about 30 kids and 10 adults from KidsRead Simei, and they all enjoyed the tour. 

Here are the notes: 

1. Characteristics of A Butterfly

- What is the difference between a moth and a butterfly?

2. Life Cycle of A Butterfly

3. Identifying Some Common Butterflies

*Do you know you can find them at parks, gardens, forests, mangroves, and even your balcony as long as there are their food and host plants? So anyone can create a butterfly garden to attract them and encourage them to reproduce.

In our garden, you can find these species more commonly:

- Peacock Pansy / Plain Tiger / Common Tiger / Blue Grassy Tiger / King Crow / Mottled Emigrant / Lime


We even see the huge Atlas Moth caterpillars quite often and they are eating up the leaves of our adrisia trees.

4. What Do Butterflies Feed On?

They use proboscis that acts as a straw to drink nectar or drink anything that can dissolve in water. They mostly feed on nectar from flowers but also eat tree sap, dung, pollen, rotting fruit or river banks. They are attracted to sodium found in salt and sweat. This is why they sometimes even land on our sweaty hands!

Host plants for caterpillars - some examples are:

Milkweed, Crown flower, Lime, Seven golden candlesticks.

Food / nectar plants for butterflies - examples are:

Snakeweed, Lantana, Ixora, Butterfly plant, String bush. 

That day, we also had a bunch of hardworking NUS students (from Youth Enterprise) who volunteered their help with weeding, digging beds, mixing soil and moving the huge tree log. A big thank you to you and the other volunteers who also showed up. We need more young people to step forward and change this world. Please continue to lend us support on weekends to make our gardens beautiful. Contact Grant if you wish to join us. 

Generation Fight Back

A message to all adults, from the next generation.  Be responsible for the planet.  

Generation Fight Back

Earth Bags

The Earth Bags project is supported by The Bodyshop.  A reminder to everyone of us here to be environmental conscious.  Not just only by talking but action from individual plays a very important role.  Great Singapore Sale has just started but WE buy only what you need not what we want.

Happy new year everyone!

In December, I brought 23 students from National University Of Singapore (NUS) to Chiangmai, Thailand for 3 weeks to do social work and reforestation projects. We planted more than 1,000 fruit, bamboo and teak trees and built water tanks and a shelter. We also spent 1 week at Elephant Nature Park to learn more about elephant care and conservation, and also brought more than 100 kgs of can tabs for the Prostheses Foundation. These will be converted to artificial limbs that are distributed free of charge to anyone who needs them. We had a couple of free days and went trekking, whitewater rafting, bungy jumping and paragliding. All in all, it was a fruitful trip.

We are planning another trip for NUS this year, and also there will be various other projects in the pipeline. - Grant

The butterfly garden at Siglap Secondary School is also taking shape and blossoming, especially the bat lily, lantana, milkweed, cosmos and butterfly plants. We are seeing more varieties of butterflies and the plain tigers have even laid eggs on the milkweed. Here are some pictures: