Before Flag Day...
As promised that following the birthday celebration at Chen Su Lan Methodist Home, I would be looking for a service project for Christmas, there it was - a flag day by Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH). As I have been educating Rachel on helping the poor and the visually handicapped, especially when we see them selling tissue papers in public places, and this flag day fell on a Saturday right before Christmas. I reckoned this was a perfect service project for Rachel and me.
Just a few days before the flag day, we made a trip to the head office of SAVH located at 47 Toa Payoh Rise, which is just opposite Caldecott MRT Station. I thought it was important to orientate Rachel so as to make this service project meaningful and educational for her. At the same time, I went there to register my name and Gary's as volunteers for flag day and get detailed information regarding the actual day, i.e. where to pick up the tins, what time and so on.
On the Actual Day...
Gary, Rachel and I woke up early in the morning to have a good breakfast as we expected this day to be quite long and exhausting. As a result, we did not arrive at SAVH as early as we wanted. Nonetheless, the staff were happy to see us especially their youngest volunteer, my girl. As she was way underaged to be registered as a flag day volunteer, her tin was signed off under Gary's name and either of us had to stay with her throughout the time when we were out there asking for donation.
We arrived outside at the bus stop Novena church at about 9.30 am. As a regular at Saturday's Novena services, I knew that would be the best strategic location for any donation drive on Saturdays. You see, people who attend Novena services tend to respond more positively to donation appeals, especially after having heard the usual inspiring homily.
Rachel and I, each held a tin, stood outside the bus-stop, while her daddy went to the nearest station to fill his car with petrol and run some errands. We were very blessed with a nice cloudy weather. It was cool and slightly breezy. This made our day more bearable, and was especially important to a five-year-old first-time fundraiser.
Oh, did I mention that my silly girl brought a pair of bunny ears out in the morning? She, with her weird fashion sense, insisted that she looked good with the ears. Little did I expect that her pair of bunny ears helped drew quite a lot attention which brought quite substantial amount of donations to her tin. Many were also drawn to her saying that she was cute, while others were moved seeing a kid raising fund for a charity.
Within less than thirty minutes, her tin was a little heavy which was quite heavy for a little kid. We took a break at 10 am as the hourly Novena session has started. This means that most of the crowd, our target audience, had gone into the church and would not be out until the service was over. Hence, we rested at the bus stop to conserve our energy for later when the service ended and the crowd started to move out of the church. During then, we swopped our tins because many members of the public had put in coins and notes into Rachel's tin but very few people put money into mine. (boohoohoo˜)
As soon as the crowd was stepping out, we resumed standing outside the bus-stop with our respective tins. Again, within a short while, Rachel's tin was filled. Meanwhile, Gary was done with his errands and joined us. As both tins were too heavy for the little girl, Gary and I decided to each hold a tin while Rachel took care of giving out the stickers.
We received so good response that we had to call it a day before noon, as the tins were quite filled and heavy. The staff at SAVH were impressed with the result and of course we knew most was brought in by Rachel.
I must say this was quite a meaningful day, preparing our spirit for Christmas. As we know, Christmas is about giving. Thus, I wanted to let Rachel prepare Christmas by giving her time to a charity. This is my yet another service project with Rachel to cultivate her compassion for the less fortunate. I also want to once again advocate to all parents on children's volunteering that will empower kids with responsibility, engage their compassions and offer them the chance to affect the lives of others. It will also help parents bond with the kids when volunteering is done as a family.
Before I end this blog entry, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment