It was raining on the morning of the coastal clean up. Many prayed for good weather and we had sun for the rest of the day. Looking around, I recognized many familiar faces that participated in this year’s Youth Conference. Before the activity started, everyone was mingling around, catching up with the things that had been going on. We started with an opening prayer and then went on and received a few pointers that the National Environmental Agency had highlighted to us.

From that short introduction of the day’s activity, I’ve learnt a few things. We should buy less one time usage products (reduce) and reuse things more, instead of just throwing them away. If we can’t reduce nor reuse, we should recycle our trash. We also have to minimize the trash we dispose of as there aren’t any landfills left in mainland Singapore. Our only “dumping ground” is at Pulau Semakau. It is an island off the shores of Singapore that cost $800 million and will only last another 40 years before it’ll be full of trash. I’ve also learnt that we should do our part to keep Singapore litter free. By simply throwing our bit of trash in the bins, it will indeed make Singapore cleaner and greener.

When that was over, Brother Yow had us wear the Latter-day Saint’s HELPING HANDS vest. This is the first time I’ve worn this and I was really wound up and ready to start right there and then! We looked like one united church out to make East Coast a really clean beach. I could tell that everyone was really eager and excited too, and couldn’t wait to start cleaning the beach. The sun was warm but many of us still bent our backs and did what we were there to do. If we didn’t, Sister Connie would get us back on track and encourage us with her kind words. Personally, I’ve never stared at the ground so much in my life.

As the time went by, some of us found interesting things: Live crabs, roller skates full of moss, dead fishes and even clothes (gosh!). Most of us found things like bottles, styrofoam, straws, lighters, cigarettes... I’m not sure about you, but every time I picked up some cigarettes, it served as a constant reminder how blessed we are to have the word of wisdom and the other standards in our lives, and how much more effort we have to put in to bringing in souls to the church. After a backbreaking and exhausting hour of bending down and picking up trash, we were rewarded to an isotonic drink. We were warm and sticky but just one look at the trash we’d collected was enough to make us feel a sense of accomplishment and encouragement. This was indeed a service project I’ll remember.