Feat of play
By Dawn Wong,
theEastisgreat

When Mr Alvin Lee taught Preston Sin how to build a sandcastle on the beach, the 10-year-old enjoyed himself so much, he went on to build what he called "a whole kingdom".

The boy is just one of many children that Mr Lee, 48, founder of Castle Beach at East Coast Park, has introduced the joy of sandcastle-building to.

Castle Beach is a social enterprise that aims to promote family bonding through building sandcastles, as well as impart valuable lessons to children.

It is difficult to miss Mr Lee's "office", a grey castle-like structure that looks quite out of place on the stretch of beach near Car Park E2 and East Coast Food Village.

He obtained permission to build it from the National Parks Board, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Building and Construction Authority, while the funding for its construction came mainly from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

It is around this structure that he and his volunteers conduct sandcastle-building lessons for the public from 3pm to 7pm on weekends.  The lessons are free, but participants need to buy Mr Lee's patented 11-part building kit.  Costing $30, the kit comprises moulds that create structures such as towers, staircases and battlements for the castles.

Castle Beach, a non-profit organisation, has also helped hundreds of under-privileged children from children's homes and orphanages through its sandcastle building activities.

The sandcastle kit was a family project, inspired by his son and a niece.  In the early 1990s, the trio got bored making plain sandcastles and decided to convert their family kitchen into a workshop, creating 150 prototypes of moulds using plastic, wood and piping.

Mr Lee eventually quit his job as a general manager of a factory, and flew to the United States to look for a business partner.

He succeeded and the kit went on to win the prestigious US Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award in 1997.

Today, the motivational speaker and author also trains corporations through the unconventional method of building sandcastles.

He said: "I use the metaphor of building.  Everything I need to learn in life I learn in building sandcastles."

For the children, building sandcastles, is also a good form of outdoor play.  He said: "At the beach, they can do whatever they want!  The magic is not in the sandcastle but in just being here!"