The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language’s definition of the word generation is a GROUP of individuals born and living in about the same time, while the Random House Dictionary’s definition is the ENTIRE BODY of individuals born and living at about the same time.
Notice the difference? Which do you prefer? It makes one wonder if our community is a collection or assemblage of individuals living life out on their own forgetting the sacrifices of our past generations or is our community a structure of people living interdependently with one another? Which do we prefer? We at EMRS prefer the Random House dictionary’s interpretation of the word, though in reality the former probably had a better understanding of our community.
The “Spread the LOVE; Share the JOY” community event was organised by Event Management & Roadshow Team, School of Business Management, Teaching Enterprise Project on 26 March 2010, 2.00 p.m. at the Blk 31 Toa Payoh Lorong 5.
Enthusiastically, groups played a part by donating caned foods and toiletries for the community event. For our love gift collection, our community team collected a total of more than 200 items for the elderly. On top of that, we also found generous sponsors that were willing to donate $500 for the elderly, 50 packets of 5KG rice as well as 500 rolls of toilet papers. Items collected were then packed into 50 beautifully wrapped boxes by our community team members, and each box consists of a packet of 5 maggi mee, caned luncheon meat, detergent, towel and etc…
EMRS students were not only enthusiastic about the donation, but also putting up a magnificent performance for the elderly. Among the student, we had discovered talents such as singers, guitarist, pianist, dancers, Zhong Ruan and Er Hu. In order to perfect their performance, the performers had put in a lot of effort in rehearsing.
To ensure that everything was set-up before the start of the community event, our community team went down earlier to set-up the sound system, gazebo, banner and canvas. Our community team had displayed good teamwork and were able to set up everything on time.
At 2 p.m. sharp, all elderly were gathered at the void deck to watch our exciting performance. Our MCs for the day were, Teresa, Joy and Lyra. They did an amazing job to liven-up the atmosphere by telling jokes and having interactions with the elderly in different dialects. Here comes our most anticipated programme of the day. Some of the performances that the EMRS students had put up were mainly Korea dance, playing of songs (i.e. Tian Mi Mi & Yue Liang Dai Piao Wo De Xin) using Chinese instruments and piano, singing of the song “Miss, this is my namecard” and lastly, a sing-a-long session with the song title “Wa Meng Ti” to mark the end of our performance. Throughout the performance, the elderly gave their fullest support and enthusiasm.
While playing the Bingo game, refreshments were also being served. Our EMRS students showed our care and concern for the elderly by assisting them in the Bingo game. Attractive prizes were given to the first six elderly who had completed the game in the shortest time.
Lastly, it was the main event of the day which was the distribution of food items. After the food distribution, our benevolent EMRS students helped the elderly to carry the boxes to their door-step.
Positive responses were collected from the participants where 54% of them strongly agreed that this community event had raised their awareness for the less fortunate society and 64% would volunteer for similar events to help the less fortunate if given the opportunity.
Needless to say, we felt that this was a really meaningful event where we could play a part in helping the elderly. On top of that, many of us felt that our efforts and hard work were all worthwhile upon seeing the smiles and laughter of the elderly. But above all, everyone had loads of fun while mingling with the elderly and this community event ended as a huge success.
Jointly written by Wendalyn, Caberline and Zhe Yan
EMRS students
