Cempakans Give Back Campaign Assembly

by Amanda Lee Yue Ping, Class of 2014, Junior 1 Cempaka

Interact Club’s Cempakans Give Back campaign concluded last Thursday, with spectacular results. A staggering total of 5463 books were collected. However, the best part did not lie in the massive number of books Cempakans donated, the best part, was no doubt seeing the joyful smiles of the 80-something orphans who are now able to indulge in their brand new mini-library. 

In the month of June, students, teachers and even parents across the entire Cempaka Damansara community, from Reception to Secondary, came together in a giving spirit to bring the gift of reading to the less fortunate. The plan was simple. Collect books, then build a mini-library. Interactors became aware of the lack of reading materials and facilities at orphanages and welfare homes due to their countless visits and active community service work. Having almost next to none in both, the children are not just deprived of knowledge, but they are missing out on a huge part of their childhood. Im sure this hit home with many Cempakans as much as it did with me. 

Boxes upon boxes filled with books began to stack up and fill the back of the KH room. The fact that the book drive was a competition also sparked students to ransack their bookshelves at home and lug bags and bags of books to school to donate. The other half of the campaign, the build-a-mini-library project was greeted with equal amount of enthusiasm from Cempakans. Interact received generous donations, ranging from a new set of tables and chairs to a bookshelf, carpets and many other things required to set up a mini reading corner.

After the deadline for the book drive concluded, then began the long task of sorting, counting and re-sorting the books. Orphanages had to be surveyed and other such details had to be sorted out. On the 29th of June, Interactors visited Ti-Ratana and Lighthouse Welfare Orphanage to set up the mini-library. It took a lot of hard work to set up everything. Who knew putting a mere chair together could take such a long time? Luckily, the children were more then eager to lend us a hand, excitedly holding pieces into place or occasionally wielding the hammer to tap nails into their place with careful supervision. The best part was undoubtedly filling in the empty shelves with rows upon rows of books. After unpacking all the children's books and bringing back nostalgic memories, there was a certain sense of satisfaction in knowing that we succeeded in giving these children a wonderful part of their childhood. 

All these priceless moments were captured and made into a heartfelt imovie which screened during the assembly. After that, representatives from Standard 3 Terra, Standard 6 Terra and Form 3/Sophomore 2 - the winning teams of the book drive, traipsed onto stage to receive a hamper filled with goodies. The younger winners beamingly collected their hamper after being hugged and kissed on the cheek enthusiastically by a proud Puan Farah. 

At the end of everything, mini-bookmarks -  having an appropriate significance to the campaign were handed out as a small show of gratitude to students for their generosity and for giving back to the community. All in all, what was said during the presentation by the Interact Board of Directors ring true: "We didn’t just succeed in donating books and building a library, we gave them a childhood and wonderful memories. And for that, thank you."

‘ The more you read, the more things you’ll know, the more things that you’ll learn, the more places you’ll go.’

- Dr Seuss

Cempaka Chillies' Mini Tournament

by  Seah Chin Lee, Junior 2 Cempaka, Class of 2013

One of the many benefits of being a member of Cempaka Chillies, is that every so often, an opportunity to have fun along with some healthy competition presents itself. I am referring to the recent Cempaka Chillies Mini-Tournament held last Thursday which saw enthusiastic participation from our members and a lot of happy, sweaty faces at the end of it.

Organized by Mr. Shipley, the coach of Chillies, the tournament consisted of Teams Perfect Penguins, Optimum Otters, Tangy Tapirs and Woolly Wallabies, led by Chistopher Lim, William Ang, Low Wei Kean, and Seah Chin Lee respectively, in which the Penguins emerged victorious, along with Alif Ashraf and Lim Jas Lin being both awarded 'The Most Astounding Players' title.

Even though it was a small scale tournament held as a friendly competition between the members of Chillies, there were amazing throws and catches from many players, not unlike those which could be seen in professional and international competitions. Every able-bodied man and woman there were sprinting, jumping and throwing their best throws out there, and even though there were injuries among them, they were all taken in good faith and absolutely everyone were in high spirits throughout the tournament. This also symbolized the last time the Chillies seniors were to appear at the trainings, and even though many were sore to see them leave, their enthusiasm remained high as the new Captains for Cempaka Chillies were elected- Jas Lin, Alif, Wai Kheng, and Louis. Congratulations captains, and all the best Chillies!

What other members had to say:

Hey guys! I am glad to say that I am fine :) Thank you all for your care and encouragement....  On behalf of all the members, I would like to thank Mr. Shipley for organizing and making it such a fun mini-tournament. It was a wonderful day for me, although it hurt but overall it was awesome! Thank you Mr. Shipley and everyone!- Fan Wai Kheng, Co-Captain of Cempaka Chillies 2013/2014, who got injured during the tourney
Hey guys! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves during the mini tourney! Big thank you to Mr Shipley for organising it, I really hope that more people will get into the sport. There were many amazing plays, and each team showed tremendous teamwork. Keep building on that, and I'm sure we'll definitely be able to win more tourneys in the future!- Christopher Lim Kang Wei, Captain of Cempaka Chillies 2012/2013
It was so fun (and so hot)! Spirits were high and as Co-Captain, I feel really proud of our members. I hope to see even more members in the coming years, trust me, you wouldn't want to miss out!- Low Wei Kean, Assistant Captain of Cempaka Chillies 2012/2013
Although it was short, it was a fun and challenging tourney. I greatly look forward to the next one.- William Ang, Cempaka Chillies Senior Member 2013

Click here to read the Interview with the Heads of Societies of 2013 to see what Christopher Lim said about Cempaka Chillies!

YJC Tiny Stories: The Best Stories

1) And so, peanut butter and jelly lived happily ever after in their castle made out of bread. 
   

2) A little girl in yellow and white stood at the school gates clasping her mother’s hand tightly. With a deep breath, she let go. 
- Submitted by Amanda Lee Yue Ping, Class of 2014

3)  I used to climb on roofs to watch the sun set. Broken bones hurt less than a wasted day.

4) If you see nothing beautiful in that broken mirror,
Find yourself in the songs you love and the things you read.

5) He joked that he was an expert sofa­bed maker. In truth, he just had nowhere to go.
- Submitted by Nadia Marissa, Class of 2014

6) Pizza is like the circle of life. It’s delicious and fun but it’s gone in the blink of an eye.
- Submitted by Chin Wye Mun, Class of 2014

7) We must teach them facts, said the headmaster,
We must teach them scientific accuracy, said the tutor,
But the children had no say, for they had not been taught to think for themselves.

8) I am scared,
That one day I will wake up,
Amongst my stuffed toys and story books, And find that I can no longer bring them to life.    
- Submitted by Chua Zi, Class of 2014


9) The chef walked around the room, picking up fruits to be used for a fruit platter. Trying to escape his fate, the banana split. 
- Submitted by Nimratdeep Kaur, Class of 2014

"The universe is not made up of atoms, it is made up of tiny stories." 
Share a tiny story with us by commenting below! :)

Coverflip

by Pang Huey Lynn, Form 5 Science 1, Class of 2013

Have you ever heard of the saying, 'don’t judge a book by its cover'? Try to imagine your favourite book, by your favourite author. What does its cover look like? Is the main character present? Can you see his or her face, or is it left to your own imagination? Is it shrouded with mystery by the use of a symbol, or is it romanticized with soft pastel colours? Now imagine what this book would look like if it was written by an author of the opposite gender. Imagine all the things you can think of when you think of a girl or a boy book. These categories are somewhat sexist, but make no mistake about it, they exist. So what would your favourite book look like, if it had been written by an author of the opposite gender? That is the essence of the Coverflip project.

Award winning author Maureen Johnson had the idea for this contest on the well known social media site, Twitter. She tweeted,"I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says: 'Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it – signed, a guy.'" The main goal of this project was to expose publishers’ sexist attitudes towards women’s fiction. She used the cover of her own book, The Key To The Golden Firebird as an example. 

The book is about three sisters who are dealing with the sudden death of their father, a plot completely irrelevant to what the cover depicts. She then asked her fans to submit images of new book covers which had been “flipped”. 

Johnson managed to receive many new covers of popular books redesigned by fans from all over the world. The best of these covers were featured on the Huffington Post. The article went on to become one of the most popular articles on the site. To begin with, Jeffrey Eugenides’ best selling book, The Marriage Plot was redesigned from it s original plain wedding ring, to include a bride and a bouquet of flowers.

Stephen King’s horror novel Carrie was redesigned to include a lipsticked, smiling blonde on its cover, completely misleading readers.

  

Sarah J. Maas’s fantasy novel, Throne of Glass which originally shows a beautiful blonde woman with a dagger sheath on her arm, was altered to show a plain throne made of glass in a morbid looking palace.

 

Bestselling novelist, Jodi Picoult agreed wholeheartedly with Johnson. Picoult is constantly critiqued for having obligatory romance featured prominently in her books. In reality, just last year she published a book with none. She asks her followers on Twitter, "Why is it 'domestic fiction' if a woman writes about family or relationships, but if a man does that, it's Pulitzer-worthy? … what would happen if a woman submitted a book under male pseudonym to a publisher? Would it be treated any differently?" History has shown us that yes indeed it would be. Take for instance the Brontë sisters , Anne, Emily and Charlotte, first published their works under male pseudonym’s Acton, Ellis and Currer. Without using those names, their works such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall would never have been published.

It is important to remember, that not all publishers are sexist. At least, not on purpose. A publisher’s job is to help sell books so he or she tries to pick a cover which can help sell the book towards a target audience, however shallow that may seem. If we give this issue some thought, the true root of evil in this case is society. People tend to judge your reading taste and capabilities based on covers of the book you are reading, despite the fact they themselves have not read it. I for one used to avoid fluffy, looking books for fear of judgement from others. Ever since Maureen Johnson began the Coverflip campaign I feel more free to pick and read whatever I see fit regardless of its cover, because I know the true value of a book, lies within its pages.

"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it."

- James Bryce

Cempakans Give Back Campaign

by Amanda Lee Yue Ping, Junior 1 Cempaka, Class of 2014

Hours of tirelessly punching holes, tying ribbons and wrapping has come to pass. The exciting hampers and adorable, colourful mini bookmarks are finally all ready in anticipation of tomorrow's assembly which will mark the end of Interact Club's Cempakans Give Back campaign. The month long campaign saw the whole Cempakan community (parents and teachers included!) actively participating with great enthusiasm in the campaign's two main activities, namely the Book Drive and the Build-A-Mini-Library project. True to it's name, the end of the campaign has seen wonderful results and has shown how we made a difference in other children's lives. Stay updated for a coming article on how Cempakans 'gave back' to the community, including full details of tomorrow's assembly!

Date: 31 July 2013, Thursday
Venue: Dato Pilus Hall, Cempaka Damansara
Time: 7.45 am
Event: Interact Club's Cempakans Give Back Campaign Wrap-Up & Prize giving

Notebook Design

Submitted by Law Veng Yee, Class of 2014, Junior 1 Cempaka

Inspired by classic Penguin classics

Reviews Cover

Submitted by Jamie Kok Yixin, Class of 2013

Click on the image to see more Reviews!