SCWO Volunteer Appreciation Lunch 2019
“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart” – Elizabeth Andrews
On 7th Dec 2019, SCWO held its annual volunteer appreciation lunch to show gratitude to our volunteers for all their love, time and dedication over the past year. As a non-profit organisation, SCWO relies very much on volunteers to help run various operations and it is only with their support that we are able to keep doing the work that we do.
A total of 49 volunteers joined us for the afternoon and the day started with a speech by our president, Dr June Goh, who highlighted how volunteers’ generosity towards SCWO has a profound and lasting impact on all of our beneficiaries – be it directly or indirectly. Dr June went on to thank volunteers for the work that they do for different programs – New2U thrift shop, IT Hub, Star Shelter, Maintenance Support Central’s (MSC) Legal Clinic, Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame (SWHF), ad-hoc event volunteers for our gala dinner as well as the board of SCWO.
SCWO also took this opportunity to recognise six volunteers who have been with us for many years. The 5-Year Long Service Awards were taken home by our New2U volunteers, Christine, Pat and Nicky while the 10-Year Long Service Awards were taken home by our IT Hub volunteers, Rachel, Dionis and Dr. Gavin. 
This year, we also gave out a special award to one of our New2U volunteer and Friday team coordinator, Sylvia, for “The Most Number of Hours 2019”. Our New2U thrift shop, is fully run by volunteers, and a New2U volunteer would spend approximately 200 hours, on average, manning the shop and sorting through donations. Sylvia managed to clock over 1000 hours since January 2019! We are very grateful for her dedication to the work that she does and when asked to say a few words, Sylvia attributed her efforts to her fellow volunteers who stood by her. Other awardees and volunteers were also invited to share about their volunteering experiences and the room was filled with applause and cheers as 7 volunteers from different areas such as New2U, IT Hub, Star Shelter, SWHF shared their experiences with everyone.
Aside from lunch, we also organised a session of fun where the volunteers played a couple of fun Christmas games with enthusiasm. The games allowed the volunteers from the different intiatives to get to know each other. To further show our appreciation, we gifted each volunteer with a bag of gifts including a mini pack of Basmati rice kindly sponsored by Grains Trading, where the volunteers were very pleased.
To all SCWO volunteers – Words cannot express the gratitude that the board and staff of SCWO wish to convey. We would like you to know that act of giving your time, is appreciated, valued and cherished.
If you would like to volunteer with us, please sign up here. We welcome you to join our SCWO family.
Special shout out to Grains Trading for your kind sponsorship of basmati rice. Grains Trading is a local Singapore-regulated and licensed grocery importer and wholesaler that imports, trades, and supplies a wide variety of healthy products to customers both at a wholesale or retail level. For more information, visit their website.
