As usual, our journey started off from our centre in Penchala, where the MOW van is ready to be loaded with goodies for the children and hospital staff.
After a short briefing, MOW volunteers set off for the hospital. Upon arrival, we quickly offloaded the goodies onto a trolley and headed into the ward. We were quite amused as it was our first time loading stuff onto a gurney instead of the usual supermarket trolley:)
We were greeted by the sister-on-call who informed us that the chosen ward, KK5, had less than 10 children, and that she would have to go to four to five wards to get 40 children. Furthermore, most of the children are quite ill and not particularly mobile. Our program for that morning was to gather all the 40 children in a ward and have fun with games and other activities. We had to quickly review and rework our program to accommodate the situation.
Fortunately, everything worked out. Instead of having all the children in a single ward, the MOW volunteers made their "rounds" to several wards, including the ICU, the High Dependency Ward and Burnt Unit. With armful of goodies including Minions soft toys, tee-shirts, chocolates, jigsaw puzzles, and coloring books, MOW volunteers happily visited and chatted with the children and their mothers.
However, the biggest excitement for the children (and the nurses too), was the appearance of three superheroes ... namely Spiderman, Incredible Hulk and Captain America, thanks to Bro Steven, Bro Andrew and Bro Ivan. The superheroes had as much fun as the children, if not more! I think the three "superheroes" were reliving their childhood dreams!
KFC's Chicky Mascot was also a big hit, entertaining the children, together with KFC staff who brought party packs for the children.
Lunch was of course KFC lunch box and yummy cup cakes.
The dedicated hospital staff were also not forgotten, and were presented with goodie bags by our MOW volunteers.
After completing our ward rounds and making sure we visited all the 40 children, MOW volunteers gathered for a group picture in the lobby of the Institute of Pediatric, with the colorful wall as the backdrop.
Everyone was all smiles and warm-hearted, after a very MEANINGFUL and BEAUTIFUL morning with the CHILDREN who were indeed the VVIPs and STAR of the day. Ti-Ratana Community Centre Penchala, Datin Catherine Lai, thanked everyone who made the visit a success, and hoped that our new volunteers will continue to support our MOW programs.
We would also like to thank the following donors whose generous donations helped pay for the expenses for this event:
- Selina & Donny Loo
- Cindy Lim-Tan
- Mary Chia
- Felicia
- Empire Stone
- Julian for the beautiful and yummy cup cakes
- Ivan, Andrew, Sharon, Steven for the cute and adorable Minion soft toys
- Ivan, Andrew, Steven for making the effort to dress up as Superheroes
- Bro Lim and Calvin for being our photographer and videographer for the day
- Catherine Lai for the AnimalCare tee-shirts
- Mr & Mrs Tai for the chocolates
- Fieda, Nini and Iffa from KFC for your enthusiastic participation in this event
- All volunteers who contributed to this event, in one way or another.
KUDOS TO ALL!!!
Posted by: Kim
Pictures courtesy of: Calvin Teh
Video courtesy of: Bro Lim
Video courtesy of: Bro Lim
