Dear all,

We are a group of four graduating students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s School of Communication & Information, representing Assisi Home & Hospice for an upcoming event.

As part of our Final Year Project, we are also serving as volunteer consultants to Assisi Home & Hospice. This presents us a twofold opportunity to apply theory to practice, as well as to contribute to a worthy cause.

This October, to commemorate World Hospice & Palliative Care Day, Assisi warmly welcomes you to join us at our Open House Carnival on Saturday, October 14.

To liven up the place even more, we are looking for clowns, or people who knows how to fold balloons, to lend us your hands and participate in this event on a pro-bono basis.

Battling cancer or even watching a loved one battle cancer, is never an easy feat.
We are glad that there are organisations like Assisi Home & Hospice that provide emotional & practical support to patients and their caregivers.

We hope that this carnival will bring some cheer to cancer patients, their families and caregivers, as well as provide a better understanding of how Assisi can help at a time when living to the fullest really matters.

It is not about dying, it is about living.

Open House features:
- Carnival offering food, fun & games for the whole family
- Guest of Honour, Minister of Parliament Dr Fatimah Lateef
- Variety of performances including renowned local a cappella group Vocaluptuous, yoyo stunts, magic shows and much more!
- Attractive goodie bags for visitors, thanks to our generous sponsors
- Informative talks

Looking forward to some good news!

Question. Are the performers (Vocaluptuous, yoyo stunts, magic shows etc) paid?

If they are paid, I think if anyone from our forum decides to help, they should be paid too. I don't want the kind hearted soul here to be taken advantage of.

And, btw, please read our rules before posting. We don't allow the posting of personal contact info.

Hmmm... Do y'all happen to need walk around magicians or just ballon artist?

Hi all,

sorry bout the contact... i din realise that. opps.

the other performers are not paid at all. =) Vocaluptuous, yoyo show (duncan crew singapore) and the street magician, are all doing this for free. =)

I already have a walk around magician.We just wanna liven up the place more with walk around balloon artist etc.

Geez... I think the organization should at least pay for the bags of balloons the artiste is going to twist. 260s balloons ain't cheap.

Maybe you can discuss with your organization about it.

... It is a charity event, after all.
If the sculptur can't afford to pay for the balloons to twist, then he shouldn't volunteer. :)

Just a thought.
Edit: No offense whatsoever! :ph43r:

I don;t think its is unreasonable to ask for compenastion on the balloon part.

A bag would probably cost $14. In a 2 hour gig, you would probably use up about 2 bags. Imagine having to fork out time to do the gig and money to buy the balloons.
But its all up to the individual.

Hi joannatan,

You're getting people to do charity event and many of us have charity rates, here's what you can do...

Either:
1: Pay for the balloons.
2: Pay the charity rates.
3: Get a sponser to pay the performer his full rates to attend your event.
4: You attend the balloon sculpturing lesson or course then do the gig yourself.

*Nothing is free in this world. Many of us spend years of training and money to become balloon sculptors, this skill is not meant for free performance. How would you like if I charge you $3000 to learn from me everything and you go for a free gig?

*You're getting a performer who do charity, not getting a sponser. Asking us to provide free service and balloons is = getting us to sponser, sorry we don't do that unless agreeable by the performer.

*Getting a magician and balloon scuptor is different, the magician does not have any cost unless he intend to give out his cards, but a balloon sculptor need to cover his balloons cost, unless of cos you provide the balloons he provide the service.

I'm not being harsh, no offense. But please be fair to the performers for their request. Thanks for your understanding.

-Alan-

Dear all,

Sorry if I didn't state things clear from the start. My bad.

Just to clear all doubts. We are looking for a balloon sculptor to provide his/her service, no doubt bout this. But, the cost of buying balloons and stuff is definitely factored into our budget plan.
My apologies if i didnt make this clear.

In fact, we are reimbursing the set-up cost of all the people helping out at our booths (max of 50 bucks per booth). For instance, Shatec has expressed interest and will be mending a few booths on that day. The student will be making cakes and muffins, and of cos the burden of the cost is on our side.

There are also some people from the Student Service Centre providing henna service and some have even went to the extent of learning the skill of balloon sculpturing over a crash course. However, it would be best if there's an expert around to help those students out as well.=) Hence, we are voicing out our need here.

On top of all those, award winning photographer, Terence, has also kindly offered his professional help all on a pro-bono basis.

Yes, so like what Magicdow has said, such things are clearly up to the individual. This is perhaps the nature of voluntary work. Some may see the need to go all out to help without expecting anything in return; whilst others feel that basis cost should be covered. These are all due to the different perspectives different people hold regarding such charity work, so clearly there is no one right way of doing things.

The objective of coming in here was just to plea for help and hoping and praying hard that someone's interest coincides with ours. That's all yea. It's unquestionably all right if you are not interested, we were just hoping that someone in here would be interested, and then it would be a win-win situation. Please dont feel offended in anyway if it seems like we have demeaned your skill by asking for volunteer. We are definitely not here to impose on anyone, my apologies again if I have made you guys feel this way.

For obvious reasons, we would very much like to cut as much cost as possible, but rest assure that basis cost like cost of balloons, has already been factored in and will be reimbursed.

We appreciate all sorts of help. Thanks guys.

Hi Joanna

No offense taken at all. Thanks for taking the effort to expand on your requirements. SMC has been busy with several charities lately, the CCF hfh event, the Sharity Elephant event for Children's Day, and also the latest Yellow Ribbon project. Plus it being the exam period right now, it may be difficult to engage balloon artists & magicians to volunteer on a pro-bono basis.

Still, no worries... I'm sure those who are able to contribute their time & efforts for this will contact you accordingly should they feel it is a cause they believe in :) I would have personally volunteered but I'm engaged with work commitments for this Oktober Fest. All the best with the event still. May it be a huge success! ^_^

Best wishes,
Ning

Hey Ning,

Thanks for explaining and I truly appreciate it.
And Im glad some have already expressed their interest!

Nonetheless, we're opening invitation to everyone and please feel free to come down and have fun.

Thanks guys.