Ngee Ann Poly Get Hands-On!

On a Sunday where most people would spend their mornings sleeping in, a thousand youths including myself headed over to Vivo City to participate in Youth Hands-On! @ South West 2010.

At 7am, DPA students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic met up at VivoCity to collect their red t-shirts and breakfast before proceeding to the rehearsal for the largest human hand formation. The rehearsal went smoothly as the youths enthusiastically co-operated with the organizers to make this project a success.

By 9.45am, we did the real run and together with other youths, we formed the largest palm formation, setting a record for the Singapore Book of Records. I am proud to be one of the participants because I find the activity to be very meaningful: the hand symbolizes youths providing a helping hand to the underprivileged residents in the south west district.

After setting the record, 20 Ngee Ann students took on the task of road marshals while the remaining youths participated by “marching” for a distance of 2km. in "March To Aid" This march was a test of perseverance for some youths including myself as I had a sprained ankle prior to this event. However, I did not give up as I believed that this 2km march is the least I could do for the underprivileged residents - to make my stand that we should go all the way out for those less privileged in our community.

After the march, my group proceeded to Bo Tien Temple at Boon Lay where we were brought on a tour of the temple and its facilities. Following that, we were tasked to clean up their living quarters and change their bedsheets. We were also given time to interact with the elderly living there and they were delighted to see us.

All in all, I learnt that community service plays an important role in our lives. Students may not realize this but the effort and time that they fork out, do make a difference to someone else’s life. Thus it is good if we can set aside some time (for example: 4 hours a week on community service which would amount to 208 hours of community service) to bring some happiness and cheer to others.

Contributed by Joel Tan, Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
See more photos of the Ngee Ann students here!