About time I posted something on this blog. As most of you may know, today was our First Aid Competition. I'm part of the team and well... I decided to put up the events of the day as my first post on this blog! (This is gonna get quite lengthy... So make sure you have enough time to spare if you want to read everything... ^^)

(Note: The timings listed below are mostly just estimation. It might not be really accurate... Also, I will add the pictures once I get them from Ms Choo next Monday. :))

(And, the legend:
Italic: My notes and timings
Bold: The programme list according to the booklet given)

06 57 --- I reached school

We had to reach at 07 00 hours and, well... I wasn't the first, and neither was I the last. As I was walking, I saw Wei Yi coming up from the zebra crossing... Alright, there's nothing much to talk about this, other than the fact that I had a pretty interesting talk with a lady who was inside the security guard house when I walked pass. Not gonna talk about that though.

07 28 --- Set off from school

Okay, so, those of us that came early --- Boon Yao, Mayleng, Kee Ting, Xuan Qi and I, as well as Robin and Nicholas, who came super early and were hiding at the basketball court --- had practically nothing to do and were either talking, discussing, or practicing some bandages. For those that came later... Well, I guess they were doing the same too. The bus had arrived shortly after I did, and so we just went off when we were ready.

And what did we do during the journey? I guess most of us were too hyper and decided to do some singing, jokes, and some story telling. It’s all mostly just the typical stuff.

07 58 --- Reached St. Margaret Secondary

We saw Mr Sam Soo! And well, a few of us got to meet our friends from the other units as well. Hehe.

08 03 --- Waiting for registration

We were sent off to wait at a corner of the canteen as our team leader (Jing Zhi, who suddenly got chosen) and Ms Neo went to register. Around this time, Zhao Hong got called out for the theory paper.

08 13 --- End of registration

Well, even when we had finished registering, we still had to wait for the preparations. Ms Neo came and waited with us while Jing Zhi went off for the briefing (I think). We first got a glimpse of the obstacles for the evacuation portion, which was really something we didn’t expect. Oh, and the programme list. The first thing on the list was:

08 20: Registration

Well, we had that earlier than the plan, but it was alright. We had to wait for a while until they brought us to the classroom.

08 30 --- Got sent off to wait in the classroom

We were the first team to enter the classroom, so it was pretty cool to have the entire place to ourselves. The evacuation team (Boon Yao, Mayleng, Robin and Nicholas) sat at one side of the classroom as they formulated their plan (according to the obstacle they saw) with a highlighter they found and with Zhao Hong’s notebook. Meanwhile, Kee Ting and I became the casualties for Xuan Qi and Ms Neo respectively as they practiced their bandaging.

We did all this while waiting.

09 00: Start of Links Competition (Hall) / Start of Cadet’s Theory Test / Briefing for Cadets’ Preliminaries
(Note: ‘Links’ is the term for the cadets of the primary school units)

09 05 --- Leaders returned from the briefing

Well at first we only saw a long row of people outside the classroom, and a VI shouting the teams in each classroom. Then I realised that the people outside were the leaders that went off for the briefing. Sure enough, Jing Zhi came into the classroom and sat with us. He explained some of the things during the evacuation portion, which is mostly about things to take note with the stretcher... It’s reasonable, since that is the trickiest part of the evacuation.

09 15: Start of Cadets’ Preliminaries (Parade Ground)

09 29 --- Zhao Hong returned from the theory paper

When Zhao Hong came back, he explained about the paper, which consisted of 20 MCQ that had to be done within 15 minutes.

10 00 --- Still waiting

Not that I have much to complain about. It was actually quite fun as we chatted and kinda forgot about the competition... which is just as good, as we didn’t have to remember the nervousness a person usually gets during a competition like this one. What we chatted about was just some things about school, subjects, teachers, and the usual stuff you talk about...

11 31 --- Received the description of the situation in the evacuation scene

The leaders got called out of the room to receive a laminated paper with the situation listed. With that, we planned out the evacuation plan and first aid treatment. We were also informed that we had 6 minutes more to go before our turn.

I suddenly remembered the programme list,

11 40: End of Links’ Competition / End of Cadets’ Preliminaries / Break

11 36 --- Got asked to go out of the classroom

We got called out of the classroom, leaving all of our stuff behind. We returned the paper, and got out onto the parade ground. I can tell you that my heart was practically jumping.

11 38 --- Competition start!

Well, yeah, we started! The thing that first threw us off was the fact that we didn’t need to tie a table (which we had been practicing) and only the flagpole was needed. And with that, Jing Zhi, Kee Ting and I, those in charge of the OA portion, set out to work. Right after we were done, the three of us realised that we needed to make ourselves useful with the first aid portion. And so, we went around helping out with the treating and reassuring of the casualties.

I helped out with some [badly done] assuring for Casualty #1 (Veronica) while Kee Ting helped out with Casualty #2 (Wei Yi). Around this time, the evacuation team have already begun their stretcher part for the unconscious casualty, Casualty #3 (Chelsea).

In the background, some music was played... Some were pretty upbeat and kinda made us a little more anxious during the flagpole part. Haha.

11 57 --- Competition ended, returned to classroom

I didn’t know what emotion I had as I returned to the classroom. I guess most of us pretty felt the same. We got informed of a break which is to last until 12 45 hours and we left to find Ms Choo at the parade ground.

12 00 --- Went to the canteen for lunch

We decided to eat McDonalds’ instead of the food from the canteen stalls... Hence, Robin, Nicholas and our dear YOs went out to buy our lunch for all 14 of us...

12 30 --- Still waiting

While waiting, we had some talk with friends from other units, borrowing one of their iPhone to play games... We also chatted about the competition just now, as well as taking some pictures with Ms Neo’s camera.

12 10: Prize Presentation for Links and Cadets' Preliminaries

12 40: Dismissal of Links

12 45: Break for Cadets' Finals

12 42 --- Moved to the foyer for results

Well, time was up and our lunch never came, so we decided to go to the foyer (which is actually the parade ground) for the results. Mr Sam Soo invited us over to sit with his school, Zheng Hua Sec.

13 04 --- Certificate of Participation given out

Okay, before this we had some cheering going on, though most of the schools were not really excited or enthusiastic. The leaders came out to receive the certificates as the representatives.

13 29 --- Results

The results were announced and… well, Evergreen didn’t win anything. HOWEVER! We brought home a great experience with us. ^^

13 10: Start of Cadets' Finals

13 46 --- LUNCH!!

YES! We had our long awaited McDonalds’ which didn’t fail to fill up our empty stomachs. It was extremely delicious, even though we had soggy French fries. Haha.

14 08 --- Went up to the hall to watch the finals

Well, since the bus was only going to come at around 15 00 hours, we decided to go up to the hall to watch the finals and learn something for the next First Aid Competition coming in 6 months’ time. All of us agreed that we had learnt something after watching two teams using the improvised stretcher to evacuate the casualties through quite a tough obstacle.

14 39 --- Came out to wait for our bus

All of us came out of the hall to wait for our bus by the stairs in front of the canteen. Again, we talked non-stop about [random] stuff as we waited.

14 56 --- Bus arrives

Well, the bus finally arrives and we went onto the bus, singing, chatting and playing games to cure our boredom and enthusiasm during the journey. We had probably made too much noise but strangely, nobody complained...

15 24 --- Reached school

Finally, we were back in Woodlands, back to school. Our loss was pretty sad, and after getting our certificates, Valorous went out of the school with a plan to go off somewhere… That plan backfired, apparently, and it ended up with some of us wandering around in some part of Singapore…



I believe all of us did a pretty speedy job for the competition as... well, I could see that some other groups were still struggling with the bandaging and the flagpole... Though we still had some room for improvements as well, but I know that everyone had tried their best. :)

Well then, time to prepare for the next FAC...

--- Victoria


P.S. A big and gigantic thank you to all the Ma'ams and Sirs who have helped and supported us with their tips and advice for the competition.
Also, I'll like to thank Celeste ma'am for her encouraging SMS sent to us shortly after the competition.