Service in Return
~ Lovin' Kaohsiung for World Wetlands Day

◆Date：4th, Feb, 2007(Sun.) ◆Time：8:30~15:00 ◆Location：Chouchai Wetland ◆Participants：Kaohsiung City    Government, Wetlands Taiwan,    Six graders of Gifted Class of Dong    Guang Elementary School    &Kaohsiung City Residents

Lovin' in Kaohsiung for World Wetlands Day Share the Achievements of Wetlands' Restoration Together

Introduction

After going through a series of researches and visiting, we have gained a profound understanding of the mother river that nourishes the Kaohsiung Plain-"Caogong Canal." We had not only visited all spots to investigate its source and current condition, but also pursued a further understanding of the Wetland Ecological Corridor constructed by Kaohsiung City Government. During the research process, we realized that although Kaohsiung City Government has been starting to work on dredging and beautifying Caogong Canal and its banks. It was mostly just launched on the lower reaches of the riverbanks. Kaohsiung County and City are only a string away; however, the restoration of upstream of Caogong Canal, which was mostly located in Kaohsiung County, had never been valued. The water quality in those large-scale waterways was all polluted, and the small ones were considered stinky gutters among houses. Mr. Wen-chien Cheng kept mentioning to us, "If one keeps working on dredging the lower reaches of a river and totally ignores its restoration in the upstream, it is only a pain killer not a cure. It does not work that we have a bad water quality in the upper reaches and expect the restoration of lower reaches alone will help improve the water quality of the river."At present, most related researches consider the restoration of Caogong Canal and the construction of Wetland Ecological Corridor are two different issues since they have no idea that Caogong Canal itself is the soul in this issue.

After a 4-month research, we came to a conclusion that if we share our research results with the public, then we must be able to arouse more attention to this issue. We happened to know that there would be an activity-"Lovin'in Kaohsiung for World Wetlands Day" held at Chouchai Wetland on Feb, 4, 2007 while interviewing the Executive Director of Wetlands Taiwan, Mr. Yao-ting Su. Therefore, we are duty-bound to strive for a vendor and started a restless preparation for this activity.

It also happened to be our finals week when we were informed of this activity, so our teachers just let us focus on getting ready for finals; therefore, we came to school to prepare for this activity at the first week of winter vacation. Mainly for the following aspects:

◆6-paged Pamphlets Fabrication

We Simplified and compressed our research content into a A4 size 6-paged pamphlet. First of all, our teacher made an example to show us through Windows Publisher and pointed out the basic concepts for page arrangement. During the process, we had learned layout skills for art designing, to simplify a copious essay, and to make it into a 6-paged pamphlet with both pictures and words. Finally, we had our color laser printer in the computer classroom print our exquisite circular.

◆Our Pamphlet(Front&Back)

◆Billboard Fabrication

We had to present all our research contents on 17 billboards. Our teacher asked us to compress a manuscript with about 300 words from our past written research and to illustrate it with pictures. After printing and all our ingenious trimming, cutting and pasting them on boards in three different colors, then collaborating with labels of guide maps carried out the task. Classifying these 17 boards into three sessions is to outstand the three links: "Introduction"is in orange, " Current Condition and Rebirth of Caogong Canal" is in brown color, and "City Wetlands Model"are in green color. After the boards were finished, we laminated and numbered them. Once they were straight up in line, they looked so vigorous that made us feel very proud.

◆Nametag Fabrication

We designed nametags for this activity by using "Print Magic." All we made brought different kinds of thoughts. At last, Miss Yang selected Yu-rou's work as the nametags for this activity because hers has a sense of entirety, which collocates with green color, the tree and bird fit with the theme of this activity so well, After the arrangement of the nametag was determined, we began to work on printing and cutting. There are two colors to identify "Little commentators" and "Receptionists."

Wetland Protectors:Dong Guang Elementary School Kaohsiung City
                                 Little Guide Ching-rong Lee

◆Wetland Drawing Contest

On our last board, it is expected that we can appeal to all to protect the wetlands through the proclamation of World Wetlands Day. In order to come out something with better effect, our teacher asked us to draw and color the expected scene. Once getting to the point of drawing, everyone became very serious about it. We spent the whole afternoon finishing our drawing, and the printed version looks gorgeous after scanning.

◆Little commentators Training

After boards were finished, the most important thing left was the training for little commentators. Our teacher chose 6 classmates to be in charge of commentating on that day. The commentating focus was to brief contents on the billboards. Our teacher wanted them to read other related information at home, so they could deliver the message that we want the public to know and show our profession.

◆Receptionists Training

For those who had not been assigned as commentators had other important roles to carry out; that is, we had to be receptionists. Inviting people to come over in a proper timing, handing out the 6-paged pamphlet, and introducing our research to them was receptionists'job. Our teacher particularly reminded us that we had to pay caution to our manners; that is, we should first greet with others and introduce ourselves. In addition, we didn't want to run out of our 6-paged pamphlets soon, so we only gave one to each family.

Activity Process

On the early morning of Feb 4, we arrived at school with excitement but were also nervous because it was the day we would show what we were capable of. We rode on parents' cars, and when we arrived at Chouchai Wetland, our teacher gave each of us a shift schedule. Our classmates were split into two teams; while one team was working on guiding and receipting, the other could rest and participate in games. There was a huge crowd of people on that day. Receptionists worked hard to hand out 6-paged pamphlet and many people came to visit our boards spontaneously. What was worth of mentioning was while Jia-wen was guiding, suddenly there was a group of people coming forward, What we could faintly see is the lens of cam recorder, and then we found out that it was our new City Mayer Chen Ju here. All of a sudden there were so many people listening to our explanations around Jia-wen. Although Jia-wen is nervous, she still had a great performance. She spoke so clearly that even our mayor praised her a lot. The activity of World Wetlands Day was truly meaningful, and we were glad to have the opportunity share our research with the public and did something meaningful to our society in return. It was a very precious learning experience!

◆ Jia-wen

Today we brought boards and 6-paged pamphlets that took us a week of hard work to Chaichai Wetland, where we did service in return. I think it was the best way to show the public what problems we had been studied. Since there were 17 boards and 6 commentators only, I was lucky to one of them selected by the teacher. I was in charge of 6 boards and because I had guided so many times that I memorized them all. On that day, Mayor Ju Chen was there too. When she arrived, it was my turn to guide. Seeing the mayor in a prominent position and her crew of staff have all became my audiences, and they all paid extreme attention to my explanation, it made me very nervous. However, when the mayor praised how good my stage performance was, I was so joyful! Although I was exhausted after one day guiding, all audiences gave me encourage and appreciation, which made me feel great and fulfilled.

◆ Yi-wen

I was one of commentators in the activity of World Wetlands Day. I tried my best to explain contents on the boards in a briefing but powerful way. Wow…it was tiring. However, I became skillful later on. I tried harder for the second run, and it was much smoother. It was thrillingly great! What made us more excited was that our Kaohsiung City Mayor, Ju Chen, was also here to watch our achievements .All of our efforts were paid off! When there were more and more people surrounding us, our sense of recognition became greater! We finally had an abundant harvest of what we had worked hard for the past few months I benefited a lot from this extraordinary learning experience and was so proud of my performance. With the applause from audience, my self-confidence had gained greatly.

◆ Shan-yun

Today I was no more as shy as I used to be. I had many people listen to our explanation. What a great and precious learning experience!

◆ Parents

Through this activity, kids had the chance to do something for the society. This activity was truly meaningful and cultivated their ability for stage performance.

We never imagined that we could have participated in the activity held by Kaohsiung City Government together with our research on the day of "Lovin'Kaohsiung for World Wetlands Day."Among this activity of all grownups, we were the only group that provided kids as commentators. Although the preparation was tiring, the meaning given by the activity was profound. Hopefully after our commentators, every citizen can not only pay notice the construction projects launched by Kaohsiung City Government, but also realize the importance of upstream restoration of Caogong Canal. Let's work hard together to recur the beauty of Caogong Canal.