Apart from decking the halls with lights and Christmas trees, receiving presents and having good food, Christmas is also a time of giving, sharing and celebrating the kindness of the human spirit.
On 5 December, a group of volunteers visited Bright Hill Evergreen Home at 21 Senja Road. In prepping for the Christmas spirit, the team played games, caroled and brought gifts for the elderly at the nursing home. With the tunes of traditional Christmas carols and mandarin oldies by artistes such as Deng Li Jun, the atmosphere began to lighten up. The normal quiet Saturday transformed into a joyful afternoon of singing and celebration.
With the many charity organizations in Singapore, it is easy to forget the volunteer work that people do. Not in this case. The event, spearheaded by Dorothy Ng, started off as an independent effort of a group of people passionate to help make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. With this determination, the team sent out request letters to different homes, without any representations from any corporate organizations and called for the help of many volunteers through their basic social network. To date, the team has already frequented many homes and aims to extend their outreach. However, they are not without purpose.
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| PHOTOS: Dorothy Ng | |
In contributing to the society, Ng and her team hope to help volunteers establish a sense of self-worth and motivation for themselves, living out the idea of feeling encouraged by being an encouragement. In the phenomenon of rising rates of people affected by depression, our community needs to learn to share the vision that by adding joy to someone’s lives, we may be able to find our own purpose. What is more meaningful is that the spirit of giving is expressed during the season of Christmas.
