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