The Social Service Club (SSC) is a CIS student club formed by a group of like-minded students with a passion for sustainability. But what did it take to get this club off the ground? Here are my top tips.

Step 1: Cook up an idea
It was easy to form a group; all it took was me asking my friends “do you want in?”. The difficult part was coming up with an idea. We brainstormed a lot of ideas as a group before deciding on hosting fundraisers for endangered animals.

Step 2: Find a mentor and hatch a plan
Now that we had an idea, we needed to act on our plan. For that, we needed to find “the one” — a teacher who could support us and help us make our ideas a reality. We found that in the form of Mrs Angela Hollington and her ingenuity. After countless meetings, we finally decided on a solid plan of action. 

Step 3: Put ideas into action
Our plan was to raise money for endangered animals. To put that into action, we decided to propose a day where Lakeside primary students could dress in their favourite clothes if they donated just $3. Now that that was settled, we approached the CIS marketing and communications department to advise us on how to run an effective publicity campaign. 

Step 4: Promote your message
With the help of Mrs Hollington and the MarComm team, we ordered and displayed a huge board with all the information in the atrium. We sent out a broadcast through the weekly parent newsletters and CIS social media. Interested queries from grade-level leads soon came in and we were invited to give a presentation to each grade.  

Step 5: Victory!
Finally the big day arrived. Thanks to donations from students and staff, we were able to raise a whopping total of $3,400. It was a wildly successful campaign for a small independent club like ours. Although we planned to donate the money to support the black rhino in Africa, COVID restrictions changed our plans. Instead, we are working with the Singapore Zoo and Jane Goodall Institute to save the Raffles' banded langur. We were even given a certificate that is now proudly displayed in the primary office! 

Step 6: Keep on growing
After our fundraiser, we are now registered as a chapter of the Jane Goodall Institute! We will be working closely with them as a school and we are on the lookout for new members! If you are a primary or secondary student, please register here. 

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