This year’s Community Chest Award recipients contributed more than $48 million in the last financial year (FY), which is 85% of Community Chest’s fund-raising target. Contributions from corporations through organising special events also hit a record high.

 

A total of 357 awards will be given to corporates, organisations and individuals at this year’s Community Chest Awards. The selection of award recipients is based on donations made or raised in the preceding FY from 1 April to 31 March. 234 corporates, organisations and individuals received their awards at the first award ceremony held yesterday. The second award ceremony will be held at the Istana next month.

 

Contributions from Community Chest Award recipients increased by 13% compared to the previous year. This is mainly due to the increase in contributions from corporations through outright donations and the events they held to raise funds for charity.

 

There are 36 recipients in the Special Event Awards category, which raised a record amount of $12.7 million. The 12 Special Events Platinum Award recipients collectively contributed a total of $9.7 million, an increase of 28 per cent from the previous year.

 

 “We are grateful that corporations had chosen to partner Community Chest to give back to society. It is also encouraging that corporations had taken one step further by getting their employees more involved through organising the fund-raising projects. We hope these efforts will create a ripple effect in the community and encourage more organisations and individuals to do their part for the needy in our community,” said Mr Eric Low, Chairman of the Community Chest Awards Committee.

 

 At this year’s Community Chest Awards presentation ceremony, there are 16 first-time award recipients, including Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Longines (The Swatch Group S.E.A. (S) Pte Ltd) and Resorts World Sentosa.

 

An acrylic stainless steel art installation in MBS, called the Rain Oculus, attracted many passers-by to toss coins into it as it resembled a “wishing well” with its bowl-like shape and a swirling whirlpool. More than $40,000 in coins that were retrieved from the Rain Oculus from April 2010 to March 2011 was donated to Community Chest.

 

MBS also partnered Community Chest in other fund-raising projects like the ComChest Heartstrings Walk 2011 @ Marina Bay and vertical marathon in May this year, which raised a total of $800,000 for Community Chest.

 

Community Chest aims to raise $55.7 million this year to help support 70 charities in running 158 critical social service programmes. The funds raised will benefit some 300,000 people including children with special needs, youths-at-risk, persons with disabilities, lonely and frail elderly and families in need. 

 

Source: 28 September 2011, Lianhe Zaobao