THANKING ALL FOR MAKING TD CAMPAIGN A SUCCESS

Most would have watched the Home music video. Some would have created their own versions as part of the "Make your own Home video" contest. And many others would have participated in the Total Defence (TD) 2011 campaign in their own way.

For making all of the activities surrounding this year's TD campaign possible, some 200 participating organisations and stakeholders were hosted to a dinner held at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) by Permanent Secretary for Defence Chiang Chie Foo on 19 Apr.

In his speech, Mr Chiang said that although the TD campaign this year had been a resounding success, "there is so much more that we can do to enhance our collaboration in NE (National Education) outreach and engagement efforts."

He also thanked all who had contributed to the NE efforts and TD campaign.

This year's TD campaign was anchored on the remake by 39 local artistes of the popular Singapore song, Home, by Dick Lee. The music video was extensively broadcast on free-to-air television channels, as well as public transport nodes such as Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations and bus interchanges across the island.

For each successful download of the music video from the campaign website, the Community Chest (ComChest) received a $1 donation from local organisations towards helping the elderly and needy families.

Overwhelming response from the public saw the "Click for Charity" drive chalking up $300,000 in donations for the ComChest, exceeding the initial target of $200,000. To signify the culmination of Singaporeans' efforts, Mr Chiang presented a cheque for $300,000 to Ms Jennie Chua, Chairman of ComChest.

Singaporeans were also asked to exercise their creativity by producing their own version of Home, in the "Make your own Home video" contest and POSB's "Build and protect our Home" competitions.

Bagging the award for the most popular video clip was Mr Wong Weishun, a 22-year-old student from the National University of Singapore. With footage shot in and around the island and his home in Punggol, Mr Wong pieced together a representation of what he loved about Singapore.

"Showing images of Singapore and Singaporeans in their daily lives brings it close to everyone's hearts. In making the clip, I realised what a great country we have, and I hope it makes others feel the same!" said Mr Wong. For his efforts, Mr Wong took home a 13-inch Apple laptop. The contest, which ran from 2 Jan to 31 Mar, attracted a total of 883 entries and over 37,000 votes from the public.

POSB's competition - which ran from 15 Feb to 11 Mar - called on young students from 16 primary schools to think about a symbol of what they would defend in Singapore, before creating the symbol using 1,000 coin boxes provided by the bank.

Students from Princess Elizabeth Primary School chose to build a model of the Changi International Airport, complete with runways and the iconic control tower. We went to the Internet, and did research to make sure it was accurate!" said a beaming 11-year-old Siew Yik Fong, a Primary 5 pupil at the school. "Teamwork is important," he added.

For their efforts, the school was tops in the Most Creative award category.

At the event, Mr Chiang also presented tokens of appreciation to the artistes who did the remake of Home; partners from the public, private and public sectors; as well as judges and sponsors of N.E.mation! for their commitment in making TD 2011 a success.

TD 2011 also saw the participation of private sector organisations such as Sakae Sushi, which introduced a novel way of contributing: each folded origami frog which was deposited in their store by customers was matched to a bento meal box. These meal boxes were then donated to selected beneficiaries. In total, Sakae Sushi gave out $30,000 worth of meal boxes in support of TD 2011.