Project Zoo-Out!: Project Zoo-Out!

Greetings Everyone,
Sorry, some of you have asked why we have little info on our site - that's because we were still tweaking with the blog but due to some excitement it was flashed out anyway. No harm done! :) Let's go through it right now.

The What, Where & When

The ZOO-OUT! Project
11th August, Sat, 2007
Location: Zoo Negara KL
Time: 9.00am onwards

The Why & Who

Well if we haven't said it enough, we're supporting the tuition of orphans at the Agathians Shelter! They're from really underprivileged backgrounds so tuition is really a necessity for them, not a luxury.
We hope to raise more than RM15,000. It costs around RM50 to give tuition to a child for a month, so if we do the math, we'd be supporting 30 kids for 10 months or more. Some of the kids are too young for tuitionbut the money of course still goes to tuition for the others.
This will take off the shelter's burden so they can concentrate on fundraising for other things - their rental, operations and so on.
Hope this gives you a better picture!

The How

Since we are privateers and like to do things small (no authorities, paperwork to bog us down, admin bullsh*t) we operate on a peer-to-peer networking basis - just like friendster / multiply / facebook!
So for the collection of the moolah, we will collect the money from you either on the day itself, or arrange to collect it via our 10 committee members, because there's a strong possibility that you know one of us, or your friend who told you about the event does.
For maximum transparency, we report to you via the blog. You know how many people are coming, and post-event we'll tell you exactly where the money goes.
So you pledge the money, and we will be arranging group discounts on that day with the zoo to let you in. There are no tickets per se for us to sell now, because our arrangement with the zoo is that we get the discounted price (RM13 instead of RM15 zoo entry) when we purchase there and then itself.
Just pledge and leave it to us :)

What's happening at the Zoo?

We're going to start bright & early, because the day is going to go nice and slow at the zoo :)
We'll welcome the kids, have an introduction and get-to-know-you session.
Some of your friends may have signed to be guardians, and these kid-loving dudes and dudettes will be in charge of jaga-ing the kids while they oooh and aaahh their way through the zoo.
And you can join us on our walk about, or you can do as you like with your friends - no pressure! But we will be giving you our itinerary so you will know if say, the picnic lunch is at what time and where, so you can re-join us. There will be many side-performances and games for the kids at several time slots, and again, you may see YOUR friends conducting these little "shows".
Our main aim here is to keep everyone amused, especially the kids.
There will also be surprise appearances! We'll keep that a mystery, sweeties.
There'll be food, refreshments, and at the end of a nice day, we'll be giving goodie bags to the kids, just to cap it all off.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Can I bring my young child along? Will she/he have to pay RM75?
A: No, we want you to have fun with your kids as well so you will only have to pay regular zoo entrance fee. RM75 is only for the adults. Babies come in free, the RM6 charge is for 3year-olds to 12-year-olds. (And we'll try to arrange for you to get it at RM4 - a discount!) So bring your babies, kiddies, cousins, godsons/daughters and so on!

Q: What if I don't know any of the committee members and don't know how to make payment?
A: Well then e-mail us and we can arrange to meet up with you, or you could pay us at the zoo!

Q: Is there an account I can transfer my money to? It would be much easier.
A: We thought about this and would love to make it easier for you, but to make sure everything's in order, and we know exactly where our pledges etc are coming from, we decided against having a main account. However, if you would rather or really need to transfer money, then you could arrange that with any committee member you know yourself, or e-mail Laych for the details.

Q: I would really like to help out. How could I do so?
A: Well we still need volunteers for food and goodie bag collection. We want our main fund untouched so we are getting sponsors for EVERYTHING else.
- Would you like to pump in some money to go to that?
- Or bring a bucket of KFC or something?
- Donate colouring pencils for our bags?
- Or maybe you are an expert in, say, er, elephants - and would like to do an interesting sideperformance for the kids about elephants?
- Many possibilities here, do speakto the committee members about this. At the moment we have enough guardians but could also do with more, because two guardians will be in charge of around six kids. You could help them / take turns!
- And of course, you can help us spread the word :)
Q: I don't think I can make the Zoo date. Could I still contribute?
A: Aww shucks, we were hoping you could make it. But if that isn't possible, then you could still pledge RM75 for our cause, and every penny will go to the fund, we won't have to pay the zoo anything for that.

Q: I am living far away, won't be coming, and would like to make just a tiny donation. A small amount. Is that okay?
A: Well while we'd obviously rather you join in our RM75 pledge, it is your decision and we totally respect that. We won't put you in our main pledge list but will accept your contribution with much appreciation! Please get in contact with our committee members if you'd like to do this.

Q: What if I come late? Do I still get to come in? Who will come get me?
A: The nicest and (coolest) part of the day will be in the morning, where we will be near the penguins (!) doing our introduction with the kids, shelter volunteers, committee members and guardians. It's going to be a nice, chilled, get-to-know-you session for all of us, so we hope you will be there! But if you come late, don't worry, we'll be passing out our numbers closer to the event date so you can call us when you are outside. We'll come to er, pick you up and bring you in :)

Q: What if I don't want to join the activities at all, I'd rather go walking about the zoo with me and my friends?
A: Go right on ahead! You're most welcome to join us anytime, whether to see the shows and games or to eat with us at the picnic, but if you'd rather go your own way feel free to do so.

Q: What's your target here?
A: Well, we would be happy with 250 pledges, because that would be tuition for 10 months. But could we go higher, even support them for a year, maybe a year-and-a-half? Can you imagine saying you were responsible for improving the education of a group of underprivileged children for a year and more? And at the orphans' young age - that's really crucial! How many people can say that? We'd be so delirious if that were to happen, and I'm sure the Agathians would be absolutely thrilled :)

Got more questions? Need more answers? Feel free to shoot em off to laychkoh@gmail.com or any of the committee members listed on the pledge list.

Till then, keep on helping us spread the word!

cheers,xox

Laych

VIEW OUR CURRENT PLEDGE LIST

HERE!