Volunteering at Willing Hearts

Chinese New Year day 3 and Volunteering at Willing Hearts. It was an extra day off for us and our family decided to do something meaningful.

There are plenty of activities at Willing Hearts, mainly ingredients preparation, food packing, cooking or cleaning.

We rotated vegetable sorting and cutting, cabbage peeling and potatoes peeling. It was a meaningful family activity for us.

Volunteers shifts are generally half day or full day. But we can tell you that 4 hours of vegetables sorting can be quite tiring haha. Besides, kids will get restless after 10 mins at the same station.

I did highlight that cabbage peeling can be therapeutic after the 4th basket. Just peel, no need to think :p

Volunteering at Willing Hearts
Volunteering at Willing Hearts

For first timers, please ask around and find a station to help. There might not be any supervisor to tell you what to do. After a while, new joiners will be asking you whether anyone need help 🙂

Kids are not allowed to use knives. We noticed that regulars would be sorting or cooking the meals in the kitchen.

Water and refreshment is available. Kids can also help to sweep the floor.

Volunteering is a good family bonding activity. While doing good, kids learn about empathy and giving back to society.

Some of our volunteering experiences are listed below.

Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift
Touch Meals On wheels (MOW) (Meals delivery)
Comchest Fudai 福袋 (Goodies delivery)
Willing Hearts (Kitchen help)
Acres (Age 14+, our kids are animal lovers)

Do take note there is only one entrance along Jln Ubi (GPS 1.317522, 103.900424 ). Volunteers who drive are supposed to park outside the compound.

Hearty Nasi Briyani after hard work.

You would need to reserve a slot before you head down. Willing Hearts do not entertain walkin due to the huge number of participants.

More details about volunteering at Willing Hearts  can be found on their website and Facebook.

ps.. Although Willing Hearts is started by Christians initiative, everyone is welcome

 

Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift

Last December, we volunteered with Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift campaign to deliver Goodies bag with Boys’ Brigade. Volunteers can choose to deliver the goods, or purchase pre-packed bags from NTUC.

More details can be found on BB’s website – http://www.bbshare.sg

Packing has been done beforehand and consolidated at Boys’ Brigade HQ.  Interested volunteers just need to indicate their availability online (with car and partners), show up and load the bags into cars.

The Boys ‘ Brigade kids and volunteers will help you load the bags. And these bags are not light!

We got 5 families (beneficiaries) worth of bags to deliver for the morning. You will normally need half a day to complete all deliveries.

Two by two, we took turns to deliver the Goodies Bags.
No1 excused as he had basketball lesson.

Bonus for us, when the same block has more than three recipients.
Aka less running for us 🙂

Boys' Brigade Share-a-Gift
Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift

While doing good, our family had more bonding and interaction opportunities. 有钱出钱 有力出力, every little effort helps.

Kids take turn to play different roles.
Some are navigator, some carry the bags or  plan for next stop etc.
We got kids who are in charge of beverage too.
Hydration is important.

All these activities sound much better than playing mobile games in their virtual world :p

Volunteering in Singapore
Volunteering in Singapore

This is not the first community outreach event for us. It is a good way to impart empathy for the little ones.

Families might be keen to contribute more to charity with kids. I have list some of our (old and new) volunteering experiences below.

Boys’ Brigade Share-a-Gift
Touch Meals On wheels (MOW) (Meals delivery)
Comchest Fudai 福袋 (Goodies delivery)
Willing Hearts (Kitchen help)
Acres (Age 14+, our kids are animal lovers)

We hope to deliver more goodie before and after Chinese New Year too.
Happy volunteering!