This Sunday (17 June), Minister Mah Bow Tan, World Champion Jesmine Ho, Sportsman of the Year Andrew Fang, developers Kwek Leng Joo & GL Yap and MP Gerard Ee bowled together, not in celebration of Father’s Day, but for another worthy cause – raising funds for cancer patients.
This Special VIP Game is the highlight of the first Singapore Real Estate Charity Bowl jointly organised by City Developments Limited (CDL) and Far East Organization (FEO).
Each pinfall in this game is worth $20 and the VIPs raised a total of $22,560, funded by the two organisers.
Together with the strong support from 87 real estate industry players, this charity event raised more than the target of $300,000 for the Assisi Home & Hospice (AHH), Assisi Children’s Centre and Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF).
Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development, who officiated at the event, expressed, “It is gratifying to see the real estate industry players – including property developers, consultants, lawyers, contractors, suppliers, agents and bankers in Singapore – have come together to do their part to help the less fortunate in our society. This is a testament to the fact that, in our quest for greater economic success and better quality of life, we have not forgotten the less fortunate and less well-off in our society.”
Mr Mah presented a cheque of $200,000 to Mr Gerard Ee, Chairman of AHH and a cheque of $100,000 to Mrs Angelina Ong, General Manager of BCF.
On the rationale for organising this event, Mr Kwek Leng Joo, CDL’s Managing Director commented, “We firmly believe that fellow industry players could join hands to offer help and friendship to the less fortunate, in good times or bad. Organising this charity bowl is just our small gesture to show cancer patients and their families that we and many others in the society do care. We are glad to be able to combine sports and charity to promote fraternity and caring spirit within our society.”
“Far East Organization is happy to be part of this effort which was initiated by CDL. It supports a worthwhile cause and given its success, should become a regular feature." added Mr Philip Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Far East Organization.
The bowling tournament saw 33 corporate teams from participating companies, which contributed amounts ranging from $5,000 to $8,000. Apart from donating money, many business executives of these organisations took time to bowl in the tournament to do their bit for charity.
The event also saw the participation of eight celebrity teams comprising one Members of Parliament Team, four National Bowlers Teams and three TV Artistes Teams, sponsored by eight organisations, which contributed $10,000 for each celebrity team. Blazing the lanes for a worthy cause included Members of Parliament - Mr Sidek bin Saniff, Mr Harun bin A Ghani and Mr R Ravindran; national bowlers - Marc De Vries, Remy Ong, Yap Seok Kim, Shaun Ng, Lee Yu-Wen, Jennifer Tan, Alvin Kwang, Faizal Chew, Valerie Teo, Sam Goh, Lim Zhong, Cheryl Soon as well as TV artistes - Brandon Wong, Andi Lim, Yang Li Bing, Chen Tian Wen, Huang Shi Nan, Tracer Wong, Khairudin Shamsudin, Mervyn Goh, Aneetha Ayyavoo.
The Singapore Real Estate Charity Bowl 2001 is an expansion of the two charity bowling tournaments in aid of cancer patients. In 1999, CDL initiated the inaugural Charity Bowling Tournament that raised close to $60,000 for AHH. The CDL Charity Bowl 2000 raised $130,000 for AHH and Children’s Cancer Society.
AHH provides compassionate and holistic care for advanced cancer patients. Last year, it reached out to a total of 727 cancer patients which include 425 live-in, 235 home care patients and 67 who used its day care centre service. Its Children’s Centre, set up in August 2000 for cancer-stricken children to rest and recuperate from their treatments while studying and playing with other children in the same situation, reached out to 27 children.
BCF is a public-funded charitable organisation that advocates the early detection of breast cancer and provides support to breast cancer patients, survivors and their families.
These 2 beneficiaries depend primarily on public and corporate donations to sustain their work. Although they are affiliated to the National Council of Social Services, they do not receive funding from Community Chest of Singapore.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />