SS14 Kids Camp Out Overnight in Backlane Open Area

Youth Take the First Step

Composting Pilot Project Kicks Off in SS14

CHANGING tomorrow, today.
Armed with vegetables, cut grass, dry leaves and grounded coffee beans, the neighborhood youth of SS14 demonstrated their ability to care for Mother Earth.
Supported fully by their parents, the 20 kids below the ages of 15 showed they could take on the responsibility of spearheading a pilot project to start composting kitchen discards and garden refuse in conjunction with Malaysian Environment Week.
With three 660 litre composting bins made available by Subang Jaya State Assemblyman Hannah Yeoh and supported by the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ), the group will take on the task of collecting kitchen discards and garden refuse like vegetables, fruit peels , tea leaves, cut grass and leaves to be deposited into the ready-made bins.
“Adults, especially the parents of these kids will supervise the collection of materials for the compost bins.”
“We will be monitoring what goes into the bins and also the process of composting,” SS14 Neighborhood Watch interim president T.K. Lee said during the launch of the pilot project.
The event was attended by more than 70 residents from around SS14 and also USJ. Among the VIPs present were Hannah, MPSJ councilor Theresa Ratnam Thong, Selangor Department of Environment director Che Asmah Ibrahim and the officer-in-charge of the SS17 police station Chief Inspector Sulaiman Baputty.
Placed within the confines of the gated back lane of the residential area, the bins and what goes into them will be jointly monitored by the group and their parents.
Hannah in her speech praised the community for taking on such a project.
“It was a casual remark about an idea to get the community involved in composting and the residents here took the challenge.”
“The families involved have showed great interest in this pilot project. They even collectively raised funds to provide t-shirts for the event which we see the kids and adults alike wearing for the launch,” she said, adding that MPSJ and the community would monitor the strengths and weaknesses of the project, which had the potential to be replicated in other areas.
Starbucks Malaysia which has four outlets in Subang Jaya and USJ have also thrown their support behind this project by providing the group grounded coffee beans weekly to be mixed into the composting beans.
Monitoring will be undertaken by the adults and the group to keep records of the temperature inside the bins, the rate of decomposition and the quality of the final product, according to Lee.
One of the participants, Teoh Tien Shern, 12 presented a powerpoint on composting and provided an insight into what can be deposited into the bins and what must not go in.
“Compost bins are not rubbish bins. If we do it right, what we will have is fertilizer for our plants and vegetables,” he said, shyly in his first ever public presentation.
Compost harvested from this project will be packed by the group and subsequently sold to residents. Funds raised will go towards sustaining the project and also to fund other projects in the future.
The VIPs were also taken on a short tour of the neighborhood vegetable gardens which included creepers and leafy vegetables like pumpkin, spinach, sawi, herbal plants and fruit trees along the whole back lane.
For more information on the pilot project or the compost bins, email the editor@sjecho.com.my.

Camping Out this Weekend

COMMUNITY CAMPING OUT -DECEMBER 6 SATURDAY 2008
ADULTS ARE WELCOME TO JOIN IN

Okay...we are just a few days away from our camping adventure for kids at our back lane kawasan lapang. The tentative programme for this overnight activity includes:

3.00pm Kids meet up at the back lane open area 3.30pm Briefing and then tips on setting up the tents by Michael Thong from SS14/7A (ex-King Scout and ex-Outward Bounder) 6.00pm Wash up and relax while Michael provides some tips on knots, ropes and shows how to "tie-up" gadgets 7.00pm Preparation for BBQ 8.00pm BBQ and sing song session led by Timothy and Punitha with guitar (SS14/7A) 11.00pm Lights out for kids.

Parents are encouraged to join in the programme in the evening and take it as a family activity. Cost for the BBQ will be RM20 per head. A Malay restaurant will be preparing the meat for us.

December 7 2008

7.00am Rise and Shine 7.30am Breakfast ( we shall cater for some breakfast) 8.30am Mini gotong-royong at the 2 backlanes of SS14/7 area. All the greens and browns collected will be deposited into the composting bins. 10.30am Tents down and clean-up of camping area 11.00am End of activity

PLEASE SMS ME OR EMAIL ME TO CONFIRM YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS ACTIVITY. WE NEED CONFIRMATION OF NUMBERS TO CONFIRM THE BOOKING FOR BBQ ON SATURDAY NIGHT.

NST Youth Programme Participants Visit SS14NW Composting Site

YUCK! EWWWWW! NO WAY!....these were some of the expressions that came from a batch of kids from the NST holiday programme when they came visiting at our composting site yesterday morning.
Their mission - to visit the composting site, gather as much information as possible, interview the participants of our composting project....and to get their hands dirty participating in the project itself.
And that's exactly what they did, although initially, they hesitated to go near the composting bins. The hesitation was more when they were asked to help sort out vegetables and fruits which was supplied by Mydin before depositing into the bins.
Many hesitated but all it took was a brave young boy to get everyone started. By then, many hands reached into the bag for "green goodies" for our bins.
The kids were then allowed to sprinkle grounded coffee beans from Starbucks into the pile before they cleaned up for the rest of their visit.

The kids then interviewed our kids who are participants of the composting project. In a "mock" press conference, our kids were asked questions and questions and questions...

All in all..everyone enjoyed themselves...I believe many of our visitors will bring home with them an experience they will not forget for a long time....and maybe they might even start their mini composting project?