Coney Island Map

Project Island-A-Hand (PIAH) 2019 @ Coney Island

Last year, my girlfriend and I went to Project IsLand A Hand (PIAH) event organised by Outward Bound School (OBS) for OBS Alumni. I am not an OBS alumni, nor been to OBS – I was simply attracted by the fact that I can finally visit OBS on Pulau Ubin. And the FREE *grin* tee-shirt, of course.

This year, PIAH happens on Coney Island. Since I’ve never been there, I volunteered again. Oh boy were there plenty of walking. We had to walk from OBS’ reception centre at Punggol Road, all the way to Coney Island.

Coney Island
Plenty of walking on Coney Island

My group were tasked to collect trash from the beach. Some other groups were tasked with weeding and planting of trees.

Trash collection near the beach
Trash collection near the beach

After that, everyone took part in an iNaturalist contest where each group had to document species of plants, birds, reptiles and insects that we can find on Coney Island.

iNaturalist and Changeable Lizard
Observations on iNaturalist (left) and a Changeable Lizard (right)

We then ended with a guided tour by Kranji Secondary School students on biodiversities and various types of symbiosis on the island.

Following that, we tracked back to the OBS reception centre for our lunch, and visited the exhibitions by various OBS partners. Similar to last year (and probably many years prior), we were told to bring our own cutlery and utensils for the meals to cut down the use of disposables.

After lunch, we checked out various booths from OBS’ partners for the event. We saw insect specimens by Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Young Nautilus’ guided nature tours, and real life stick insects from Wildlife Reserves Singapore, among others.

Stick insects at the Wildlife Reserves Singapore booth

Another interesting booth was that from OBS, where participants were taught to make our own citrus enzyme detergent. Visit the blog post to see how we did it.

Bokashi Composting and Citrus Enzyme Detergent
More about Bokashi composting and citrus enzyme detergent at the OBS booth

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