虎年快乐 angels!!

Well well… the celebration last sat has in a way helped us mark an end to the Chinese New Year festive season… no more Ban Luck, no more feasting and it’s time to diet, diet and diet…

As early as 1.30pm, many angels were already at the home buzzing around busily with the necessary preparations. Come come, let’s go find out what these angels were busy with…

1. Some angels were busy packing a big carton of mandarin oranges sponsored by the home into paper bags and neatly loading and counting it onto a trolley
2. The décor ladies were decorating the dining area with虎年快乐! Andrea was high up on the chair hanging the words while Caroline was on the ground trying to “balance” the wordings… Nickson quickly went over to rescue the damsels in distress.. keke
3. Our professional group of photographers (Gong2x Poh Yan, Xing Jian & Chin Leng) were walking around capturing the angel’s best shots
4. Our favorite emcees, Uncle Sam and Ping Sing were preparing their scripts
5. Aunty Molly, Rico and Yen were in the kitchen de-boning the “birdies” for dinner
6. Game master Ah Kiat was seated in a corner preparing the stuff for his games…
7. Uncle Mok, Jojo and Gary were testing out the sound system with their beautiful voices
8. A few “muscular” guys were moving the tables to the sides.. haha..
9. Doris and Jasmine were walking around supervising to ensure that everything was in order..
10. Last but not least Cai Sheng Ye Desment dressing up in the room

Soon enuf, the program for the day started…. Our ever wonderful emcees greeted the elderly with well wishes followed by a short hilarious sketch on the mythical legend of Chinese New Year. Hahahaha… a great job by the teachers and students of CCKSS.. the story was indeed very funny..

After the sketch, Henry and Yiqing (teachers in charge) lead a group of 30 students from Siglap Secondary School 华乐队 to captivate the elderly with a solid 20 mins of wonderful performance. Thank you all for the effort and time in organizing this program for the elderly, they will love to hear from you again…

Next, loud cheers and claps were heard from the elderly to welcome the Cai Sheng Ye… wow wow this year we got a sexy GOF who were distributing the ang baos and oranges to the elderly in his appeared in his sexy short bermudas, oh well, not to worry his “tou fu” was not being eaten up as he was tightly protected by Uncle Yeo…. Hahaha…

While the GOF was making his rounds, Chinese New Year goodies were being served as snacks to the elderly… gosh the elderly was happily munching the cookies away and a sweet cup of barley drink to soothe their dry throats.. *slurp slurp*

Next came our game master, Ah Kiat, with his whelly whelly good Chinese New Year quiz.. gosh.. you could see that the elderly loved this game ya .. after each question, they could be seen waving their “选我” flag frantically in the air trying very hard to catch the attention of Ah Kiat and Uncle Sam… Actions were not good enuf, macho Nickson even went to the extend of attracting the judges with his sexy voice….. ooooh that was really power man!! Thanks to him, a couple of elderly managed to win some prizes.

Some were lucky but some were unlucky… thanks to Gary’s 西瓜, Gong Gong Robert was not able to win any of the prizes … why lehz? It is because when the question “which fruit do we used to 拜年?? Gary gave him the answer 西瓜… diao diao!! This was so funny… and due to this game, poor ah kiat nearly got tore into half with the ladies pulling him and there… kekeeke.. heng ah he is still intact.. oops =D

Next came the lion dance performance by the Koon San Lion Dance Troupe. The lion was challenged to cai qing from a great height.. hahaha thanks to Hui Hui’s idea of tying the vege to the ceiling… Besides the stunts by the lions, the lions also went round befriending the elderly. Most of the elderly got rather happy when the lions got up, close and personal with them.

After which, the elderly and volunteers LOU LOU LOU their way to good health, more wealth and happiness… !!

Roast ducks, roast chickens, char siew and ice cream were served to the elderly as extra toppings to their dinner.. while they were slowly enjoying their meal, our once very famous chopsticks sisters mesmerized the elderly with their lovely tunes.

3 cheers to the success of this celebration… Hip hip hooray!!! We the organizers wanna say a big THANK YOU to all the angels who made this event successful… without you, this will not be possible… thank u
With special thanks to

• Poh Yan – for contributing the Ang Baos
• Uncle Song – for sponsoring the Roast ducks, chickens and BBQ pork
• Chin Ling – for sponsoring the yusheng and ice cream
• Fiona – for the snacks and drinks
• HQ – for the lion dance troupe
• F& B Comm – for the organizing of the snacks and sumptuous dinner for the elderly
• Décor Comm – for the decorations put up
• Games Comm – for the wonderful games planned
• Entertainment Comm – for the lovely songs sang
• Lovely emcees for the wonderful hosting
• Desment – for being our cute cute GOF
• All angels who contributed their unopened cookies to the home
• All angels who are present at the event – Xiaoxuan, Fuji, Adeline, Jenn, Simon, Nickson, Rico’s ex students, Andrea’s friends, Bee Lian, Ben and many many more.. pardon me if I have left any of you out.

Saturday, 23rd January 2010
CNY Shopping at Giant Tampines

We had a very huge and spontenous turn out of new volunteers led by Andrea (but of course, that JoJo was skiving again). This would not have been possible without her coordination and patience in piecing the jigsaw together and Jin Xiong who once again led us with drive and passion and all of you who were with us, will know the elderly were brimming from ear to ear because of your time and effort, we want to thank you all.

Registration started at 12:30pm. Elderly who were selected to go for the outing were nicely dressed in anticipation, while waiting for the volunteers to do the necessary. It was kind of chaotic initially, as most volunteers were new. Slowly, things fell into place. Jin Xiong gave a very concise briefing before the set off hence the new volunteers were once reassured.

We boarded the bus after settling the elderly comfortably in a wheelchair assisted vehicle. The volunteers thereafter boarded the SBS bus. Jo Jo (who volunteered herself unnecessarily) once again tried her best to damage our eardrums along the way. She did succeed somehow. The trip to Giant was a breeze, as it was less than 15 mins away.

Upon arrival at Giant Hypermart, the elderly were given $20/- budget each to purchase items they desire. Some savvy shoppers, even got their ‘list’ ready. Do not underestimate the ah gongs and ah mahs, its experience that counts afterall. Unsure of what $20 bucks these days can achieve, it astonishes me, some volunteers even have to help out with the extra baggage. They had a really good time.

Changi Airport Terminal 3

Our second destination of the day was the viewing gallery at Changi Airport Terminal 3. The elderlys were brought to the Terminal in an orderly fashion and we toured the gallery in groups. I must say, for the first timers who joined us that day, they did a great job in escorting the elderlys around the Terminal. After 30 mins at the gallery, its time for the elderly to head back to the Home for their sumptuous dinner.

Closing this chapter, a big THANK YOU to those who played a part in making this event a great success. Just to name a few who were present,
Mr. Mok (entertainment angel)
Song and Chee Wah (logistic angels)
Shu Hua and Fiona (F&B angels)
Christina and Carol (Finance angels)
Poh yan and SK (pornography angels, oops I mean photography angels)
and groups ICs (Jasmine, Loi and Adeline).

And for Rico, Hui Quan and Gary, please ensure your presence for our next event or I’ll do something very nasty, like blogging about your rendezvous next.

Also, we would like to extend our utmost appreciation to Giant Hypermart for providing the elderly each with a very generous goodie bag filled with so much goodies.

So ladies and gentlemen, watch out for our next outing, which I believed is not too far away from now. See ya.

Cheers
Jenn

The rest of the photos

Hello volunteers of Moral Home,

A happy new year 2010 to everyone! It’s a brand new year and we shall welcome theTiger year (not woods) with a shopping trip!

On 23rd Jan 2010 we will be bringing 20 elderly of Moral Home to a pre Chinese New Year shopping trip at Giant Tampines. We need volunteers to help the elderly with the travelling and the shopping.

After the shopping we will proceed to Changi Airport T3 for some sightseeing before heading back to the Home.

The outing is on the 23rd Jan 2009 (Sat) 1pm to 6pm. We will be needing 35 volunteers and since it’s less than 3 weeks away, we need your response fast. So hurry and sign up with our volunteer coordinator Josephine at crystaljose1985 [a] gmail.com.

We had so much in our last shopping outing in 2007 (wow… 3 yr already). Check it out at: 2007 CNY Shopping And photos too.

Hope to see you all!

Cheers
Moral Angels Volunteer Group
http://moralangels.com

A year at moral home has almost come to an end~
How do we sum it up?
We end it with a christmas celebration organised by a first timer, barbie and an old slack timer, jojo.

Buzzing, singings, shoutings, squeaking, mic tests, strumming, jingling all these are the sounds heard inside the office and in the dining area~
Moral angels are always so not quiet at work~~ but this is also the best part of us too..our ‘noise’ to each other made the christmas atmosphere
At moral home come alive~~

While angels are busying doing up the celebration atmosphere, our ah gongs and ah mas upstairs are not any freer..
They are also preparing to come down in their angels polo and look in their best to come down and join us in this joyous event!

Our emcees kick start the event with a brief history of christmas and inviting our Santa Claus ( wei wei— who has kindly offered to be sabotaged by SK who claimed to have jet lag from japan of same time zone as us or perhaps SK has been using up too much of his pitera, that’s y he been ‘balding’ and using a cap to cover..heehee…joking…. =p), Santa Rina (our sweet and always enthu Shermin took up the role and look superbly cute with her two white plaits hanging down which compliments with her white boots..oops..white flats..haha..) and not forgetting our evergreen ever charming elf (Jasmine, she rushed over despite the heavy rain and was drenched when reached…who else can be our very own elf who actually braved the rain to grace the event~)

Soon log cake cutting ceremony by our santa claus, together with his santa rina and elf.
This year’s christmas gifts to the ah mas and ah gongs are sets of pyjamas and handkerchief (thank you aunty fiona) and i believe they love it!!

Our first entertainment started out with an instrument performance by Shuhua (keyboard player) and Mok (multi-tasker for the day, guitar player, emcee, singer, volunteer, etc..).. such melodious music appreciation for our elderlies…

Games… our slacker in-charge Gary has puzzled everyone with his jigsaw games~~~ the 40 pieces jigsaw were no easy task if not for the spontaneous and ever kiasu angels wanting to help the elderlies win…our ah gongs and ah mas sure has a great deal of fun feeling ‘puzzled’!! haha~~

Then we have a long string of christmas caroling from Cherie’s heart childcare centre..these children’s bright faces and sunny characteristics mesmorises our ah gongs and ah mas and how beautiful a saturday it can be with them around…. later part..these children even ran around to give packet biscuits away…so young yet so generous!!

Then we had AAA to perform christmas carolsssss..wow…they surely has motivated alot of us to be good singers like them~~ before their performance, they gave away christmas ang baos… aren’t moral home elderlies blessed with so much love!!

For the elderly who were unable to join us in the dining area, they were equally blessed with the angels’ love. Santa Claus and his troop (Santa Rina, elf, Ping Sing, Desment and Maria, our guitarist) performed Xmas carols for these elderly at Level 1 and Level 2.

Lastly we served our grand dinner with braised meat, eggs, beancurd heartedly prepared by our kitchen heroines— Molly, Susan and Ah Yen… their sweat in the kitchen has certainly not been wasted as all the ah gongs and ah mas finished up every bit of their food!!! these 3 heroines deserved to be commended a zillion times~

Finally, to all those angels and volunteers who were around~~~ your presence is the greatest presents to us and to the elderlies~~  many thanks for your time and participation~~ till then… take care and have a joyous christmas celebration!!

A special thank you to the committee members for making this event possible..
1) Our dearest emcees - Mr Mok and Adeline: Thanks for agreeing to be the emcees for the day.. seriously the 2 of you look so pro with all the accessories =)
2) Santa Claus (Ah Wei), Santa Rina (Shermin), Elf (Jasmine): did you guys manage to burn any fats from the warm clothing… =)…
3) Deco team – JX and our 有才华又帅的 Ah Kiat: the fire place is awesome… i like it … =)
4) F&B – Aunty Molly, Yen and Susan: thanks for the yummy-li-cious food but a pity barbie xian is not able to take non-halal food =(.
5) Photographer & Videographer – Mr Loi, SK, Ah Kiat, Hui Quan aka AD, Uncle Poh Yan: for capturing the precious moments
6) Game – Gary & Chee Wah: a pity we didn’t have enough time for the ’pass the bean bag’ game. Don’t be disappointed Gary, we shall reserve that game for the next event ya.. =)
7) Entertainment – Ping Sing, Desment & Maria - for bringing joy to the residents who were unable to us in the dining area.
Sound system – Desmond: for controlling the AV system
9) Not forgetting my prettiest co-organiser Josephine: a big thank you for agreeing to be my co-organiser given the short notice =)… Muach…

Jojo and barbie Xian

More photos at Xmas Gallery

It’s outing time at Moral Home, and we are bringing the folks to the Singapore Flyer!

Uncle Song was the first to arrive, loading up 15 wheelchairs up the lorry for the trip. Thanks Song for the back breaking task, we will get more help for the next outing.

Rico and Yen were also early to prepare for the volunteer registration. Slowly but surely the volunteers streamed in, same for the elderly who were brought down from their rooms. They sure were excited about the trip, waiting at the lobby 1 full hour before the set off time.

We had 20 elderly and more than 35 volunteers for the outing. We are glad to see volunteers who are always so supportive. There were also a number of new faces who are joining us for the first time. I am sure you will enjoy this outing, and hope to see more of you in the future.

We managed to ’squeeze’ everyone into one tour bus, not bad huh? No choice lah, times are bad, haha. Actually the bus capacity is 50, so everyone was seated comfortably except for a few volunteers who were performing. They were non other than our Jojo, Gary, and Mok. They always manage to get the crowd going effortlessly with their infectious singing and boundless energy.

The Flyer isn’t too far from the Home and we reached our destination in 20 min. Song and Desmond were already standing-by with all the wheelchairs lined up in twos waiting for us at the entrance. Many thanks to all the volunteers working tirelessly behind the scene to ensure a smoothly journey for everyone.

After we got everyone off the bus, it was snack time. Better fill up that tummy before going up that ride. Snack was an assortment of Pao, specially selected by Adeline and Jennifer. The snacks were finished in no time. Either everyone was simply too hungry or was just too eager to get on the Flyer.

Not only were Singapore Flyer kind enough to offer us a special rate, they also provided a dozen of friendly guides to help us with our special needs. We were given the VIP treatment, with our own private lift and direct access to the cabin. They even stopped the Flyer when its time for us to board the cabin. They certainly went all out to make sure we had a pleasant time. Thanks Singapore Flyer!

We were split into 4 groups, each occupying 1 cabin. As the cabin slowly moved upwards, the enthralling sight of the city’s skyline slowly unfolded before our eyes. It was an amazing experience, and the residents were visibly thrilled by the view. Needless to say, everyone who was armed with a camera was busy taking photos of the wonderful view outside.

The volunteers were explaining every building within sight to the residents, while the residents shared with the young volunteers how the Singapore river used to be during the early days. After 40 min on the Flyer (which felt more like 10 min), everyone was reluctant to get off. Well maybe we will come back again next year

There was still time for group photo taking before leaving for Moral Home. Our very pro photographer Stuart found a perfect spot and we were all rounded up to strike the perfect pose. It was no easy task to fit 55 of us and the Flyer into a single pic, but you can trust Stuart to get that perfect shot.

The outing did not end after we reached Moral Home. The residents who did not join us for the outing were already out at Bedok Food Centre having their dinner, and the residents who came back from the Flyer were eager to join them. We duly accompanied the residents on a short walk to the food centre, with all the yummy food already on our mind.

Each resident was given $5 to buy any food he or she desired. They were like kids in a candy store going around hunting for their fav fare. This was part of the Senior Citizen Week activities organized by Moral Home, and the residents were clearly enjoying themselves.

After a hearty dinner, we proceeded back to Moral Home. It was a long day for everyone, but you could never tell from the face of the volunteers and the residents. It seemed like everyone was still longing for more, reluctant to end the day.

The outing couldn’t be a success without the commitment of all the volunteers. I continue to be amazed by the dedications of Moral Angels, be it the long time veterans or the ad-hoc volunteers. You have always answered the call when asked upon without fail. We will also like to thank Moral Home for their constant support, the Singapore Flyer for their kind reception, and the generous donors for this outing. Last but not least the organizing committee for doing a great job. You deserve a big pat on the back.

Cheers
Jin Xiong (already looking forward the next outing)
More Flyer Photos

“Teh siew dai! Kaya gao!” this is what you would normally hear at a standard coffee shop. But this is no ordinary ‘coffee shop’ that serves you your toast, teh, and returns you loose change. It was home-made kaya (made by chow chow), freshly toasted bread, together with lots of love and sincerity served on an old school plastic plate for the ah-gongs and ah-mahs. Though it waas my first time being a kopi-soh, I had no qualms being one as (not because I was the youngest) it was as blatant as giving a toast of love in exchange for a wrinkly but heart-warming smile.

Simultaneously, it was also ‘bring-a-friend’ day. Sometimes it amazes me how the moral angels come up with these bizarre and innovative ideas for the name of spreading volunteerism. I have never met a more cohesive and welcoming volunteering environment as such, which frankly, haunts my conscience.

There were 4 new friends who joined the moral home— Ka Man, Caroline, Sandy and Min Ling. There was a presentation done by jojo to assimilate the new volunteers. After which, they were brought around the home to orientate themselves. Shortly, was the usual entertainment—karaoke kings/queens, mahjong with auntie molly, and throwing sandbags with Alex.

Before we left the home for sports day, we had a short ice-breaker, introducing everyone and the complicated love matters within the moral angels. The gist of it was that everyone was attached one way or another. It was fun seeing the angels air their dirty linens in public.

The day ended with a fat-busting-team-building-leaving-everyone-yearning-for-more sports day. Activities include, captain ball, badminton and table tennis. Captain Ball was definitely the highlight of all sports which also revealed the dark side of many. The wild, the violent, the kelongs, and the dangerous.

After the workout, calls for a feast. We settled at Miss U café in our aromatic and high-spirited disposition, and parted in anticipation for our next amazing volunteering experience.

Andrea