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  Straits Times 15 Sep 07
Record 101 tonnes of newspapers collected for charity

IN A single day, 2,500 students collected 101 tonnes of newspapers and another 5 tonnes of recyclables in the name of charity.

For their effort, Ten Tons, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic team which came up with the project, has won a top youth fund-raising award, called Youths Embrace Social Services (Yes2).

The islandwide collection on July 14 raised $28,307 for 12 voluntary welfare organisations.

Project leader Huang Qiong Ping, 24, said that about $15,000 came from selling the items to public waste collectors, while the rest came from corporate sponsors. Half the volunteers were from the polytechnic, while the rest were from secondary schools who went from door to door to collect what they could.

The feat has been recorded in the Singapore Book of Records for the most recyclables collected for charity.

The massive endeavour won praise yesterday from Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew. 'This was no easy task,' he said. 'It required real planning, organising, and mobilising people for its execution.'

Earlier this week, Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said he would like to see a third of secondary school students having a stint overseas, to give them a global outlook.

Elaborating on the project, Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui said: 'What they've done here would really give them the skills that are needed and this would come in useful when they bring teams overseas and find ways within the context and the culture of a different community to give something from Singaporeans.'

He added: 'There are many opportunities for students to give back to society even if they were to remain here in Singapore. The two must go hand in hand.'
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