Spreading Festive Cheer to the Seniors Under Our Care

By Jasmine Lim

Despite the gloom of the COVID-19 pandemic, our festive spirits were not dampened!

It has been a yearly tradition for our corporate partner, IMC, to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with our clients. It was no exception last year. IMC sponsored about 500 mooncakes for our beneficiaries across various programmes and services. Despite an increase in the number of beneficiaries and logistic challenges as most people were working from home, plus the need for strict adherence to safety protocol, IMC did not disappoint our elders.  A total of 30 IMC staff volunteers stepped up to help with the packing and distributing of mooncakes on a day that started with an early morning shower and ended hot and humid in the afternoon. Safe management measures were observed throughout for the safety of our clients and volunteers.

The kind sponsorship and hard work from the volunteers brought smiles to a total of 232 seniors. IMC staff, Chason and Jotham, both were first timers to this CSR event. “During this difficult time, I am glad that our action can bring smiles to the elders. I am happy to be part of it and definitely looking forward to the next distribution,” Chason said. Jotham agreed and shared the same sentiments, “Visiting some of the beneficiaries of Tsao Foundation has been nothing short of fulfilling. Being able to plant smiles and bring joy through the distribution especially during these extraordinary times, reminded me of how blessed I am to be able to contribute.  As spoken by our Chairman, Mr Frederick Chavalit Tsao, ‘where possible strengthen your social impact, and make a difference to the lives of others,’ I look forward to creating more value and positively impacting the Foundation during the next distribution opportunity!”

Instead of having the annual Chinese New Year Lunch for our seniors this year, our care teams, sponsors, and volunteers packed and distributed 364 gift packs to our seniors, each containing items such as chicken essence, CNY cookies, mandarin oranges etc. Apart from the CNY gift packs, our clients at both the Elder-centred Programme of Integrated Comprehensive Care (EPICC) in Tiong Bahru and Whampoa enjoyed a delicious lunch and tea break made possible by our corporate partner Heritas Capital, with food from SilverConnect, and Alchemy Foodtech.  The bellies of our clients were full, but our hearts were fuller indeed!