HTA Opening

The Home Team Academy which i was training in is officially opened today. For those who do not know, the Home Team actually consists of the Singapore Police Force (SPF), Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Internal Security Department (ISD), Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE), and the Prisons Department. As a trainee there, i was naturally involved in this event that lasts the whole day. Frankly speaking, i must say that the opening was really well done!

In the morning was the parade where some of my squadmates were chosen to be flag bearers. DPM Wong Kan Seng was the guest of honour. After which was a display by the Special Operations Command (SOC). Their riot control scene was really intimidating.

In the afternoon was the open house and carnival. The public was allowed to come in and visit various facilities of the academy. This includes the barracks, the shooting range and the training village which i thought was the most interesting. The training village consists of many mock up places like a mrt train, an ATM station, and a food court. The public can also try the revolvers at the range, although the bullets fired are FX rounds. At the field was the carnival with the usual game, food and gift stores. My squad was tasked to open a stall too for charity. In fact some of the stalls were there for charity, with all proceeds going to Club Rainbow. My squad came up with a simple game, that is throwing tennis balls to knock down cans, but i was and still am very impressed of how they marketed the stall. Firstly, one of us got many free gifts from his various network of people to be used as prizes, and trust me, it is really a lot of prizes. Secondly we had a walking advertisment going round to advertise for our stall, saying that it's all for charity. Thirdly it's really cheap! $1 for 4 throws! Lastly and most importantly, everyone wins prizes!!! Yes, even if you miss all 4 throws. Of course the prizes gets bigger if you get more hits. And you can even choose your prizes from a fixed set of items! Anyway I was tasked to help out with the balloon sculpturing squad that was suppose to be sculpturing balloons and distributing them to the children in hope that their parents would contribute some money to Club Rainbow. Somehow there was no need for us to be mobile, the children just flocked to us automatically so much so that the balloon sculpturers could not handle the demand.

Finally in the evening they ended the day with a huge concert with stars from the Singapore Idol, Super Band, and some MediaCorp artistes such as Fiona Xie. I skipped that portion as my parents wanted to return home already. Phew, what a tiring day! But i felt really proud to be part of the Home Team.