What: Chinese New Year Charity
When: 28 January 2018
Where: Kampong Kapor, Whampoa
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Angela, Participant:
We gathered early in the morning to pack the goodie bags. Then we made several trips to different households in need to distribute the goodie bags throughout the day. We chat with a few while helping them put up new year decorations on their door. A elderly even invited us in and we chat with her in the house. Seeing the smiles of beneficiaries made all the work worthwhile. A heartwarming charity experience with the RBKD team!
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Ashley, Participant:
Glad to have the chance to participate in this yearly ‘CNY tradition’ of sharing and spreading bday love 
Briefing and packing of the goodie bags were done at the spacious centre and the most memorable part actually went to taking the countless boomerang and group pics using the vegetables, goodies etc 
I thought the self collection arrangement this year was brilliant and efficient to benefit more families. We were also able to complete our home delivery to the nearby families timely before getting a short lunch break, and continued with the afternoon location.Â
This year’s Chun Lian was also super cute with the hand drawn designs of members’ doggies!
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What: Chinese New Year Charity
When: 21 January 2017
Where: Ang Mo Kio
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Community | Comments Off on RBKD CNY Charity 2017 as Rui En’s Birthday Gift
What: Annual Giving (Volunteering) – Art Jamming
When: 12 November 2016
Where: AWWA
Participants: Allan, Bi Hui, Candice, Ernie, Jiamin, Joanne, Jolie, Jonah, Junqi, Lixian, Madeline, Phyllis, Shuwen, Rui En, Xin Jie, Xinyi, Yanling, Yeeling
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Ernie, Participant:
Prior to the event, I have not painted on canvas before. I was not sure what to expect. Luckily we had trial runs and it wasn’t too difficult.
During the events, kids were allowed to draw anything they wanted. And kids being kids, where latest fads catch on them, majority of them wanted to draw the characters from Pokemons, such as pikachu, mega charizard and the likes.
I didn’t want to influence their train of thoughts so I let the kids assigned to me draw anything they want. I was more than happy to mix the paint colours to whatever they want – brown, peach, lime green and so on.
While waiting for the paintings to dry, we played bingo. What started as calm turned into chaos when everyone started shouting “Bingo!”
We ended the event by giving out their paintings and goodie bags. It was a tiring but fun event!
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Xin Jie, Participant:
Frankly speaking, I was hesitant & filled with apprehension when I first signed up for the event. I didn’t know what to expect for art & me don’t go well together. I can’t draw for arts and just the thought of having to draw during the art jamming session or draw alongside with the kids drove me nuts.
Came the day which I didn’t know what to expect. However, we were time tight and everyone was doing the best to be efficient to get everything ready. I forgotten all about my “drawing fears”.
Then came the time when the kids arrived, I was introduced to the kid I would be partnering with. I soon found out from him what he wanted to draw: tables, and he wanted to paint in his favourite colour; orange. I had a great time watching him art jam & gave slight help when needed. Sure, there were moments when coaxing him got a little trying & I couldn’t manage well in that aspect. However, what matters more though was we both had fun during the art jamming – he was all smiles & laughter when he did an abstract painting with his favourite colour, orange.
This is my first time in an art jamming event (with RBKD). Being able to interact & bond with children through a drawing-painting session is a unique & refreshing experience.
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What: One year sponsorship of free weekly breakfast to total of 200 elderly at 4 Senior Activity Centres, rotating among each centre of 50 elderly per week
When: June 2016 – May 2017
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Xinyi, Club President:
Yet another gift on commitment. In RBKD, we firmly believe in spreading the love. To those of you who have been to Rui En’s events, I am sure you understand what I mean when you have something to look forward to and how a single activity/event can brighten your day. Yes, this is exactly what we are trying to do for the elderly, to let them have something (free breakfast) to look forward to monthly, a little something to brighten their day.
We are halfway into the one year project now, and to be honest, it is not easy. The commitment level required is high; imagine climbing out of the bed at 6/7am to cook the red bean soup/make our way to north south east west of Singapore, the force is strong to stay in bed. But when you are there, the smiles and thanks from the elderly makes you forget about the early hours and empty stomach (yes, many of us serve with an empty stomach as we struggle to get out of bed and reach in time, so skipping breakfast becomes a frequent affair).
I must say, this is the single most challenging charity project we have done so far, with the duration and cost of project enough to deter others from doing this. But we will see through this, one way or another. Because this is how we do things in RBKD. We don’t give up.
PS: You might find it unbelievable but the elderly do not know who we are, where we are from. They recognise us but we never saw the need to make known our identity deliberately. It’s the RBKD’s way of ensuring we stay true to the reasons why we are even serving.
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Melissa, Participant:
I consider being able to volunteer with RBKD for the Breakfast Project a great opportunity for me to do something for the community. Without RBKD’s initiative, I would definitely have trouble finding places to volunteer at because I wouldn’t know where to start, or know which organisations are transparent and reliable; that my helping them would benefit others directly. That’s also why whenever I come back to Singapore from Sydney during my school holidays, I would try to go volunteering with RBKD as much as possible (even though it starts really early in the morning and sometimes I really need more sleep).
I really appreciate how RBKD makes it so much easier for me to do something good, and the Breakfast Project is really fun for me because I get to wash all the cups and dishes after the elderly finish eating – I love washing dishes! I just find it so therapeutic.
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Jonah, Participant:
It was a simple help out by serving food and drinks to the old folks. At the same time I am returning a bit of favour back to society by providing some form of service to the elderly who contributed to society back in their working years.
Sometimes things around us tend to make us take things for granted as we been living in a country with basic needs met compared to the less well-off countries which have a harder time meeting their basic needs. Young people like us should help out by volunteering if they willing to use some of their time and effort to give back to such a stable society and economy.
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Madeline, Participant:
The breakfast project was a great way to get myself out of bed early on a Saturday morning; we spent the morning preparing and serving food – with bananas, biscuits, bread, coffee and macaroni soup prepared for them, they definitely had quite a spread to choose from!
In the middle of the session we live-streamed Joseph Schooling’s historic gold medal finish, and as Murphy’s law would have it the stream got cut off right before the race ended and we were left hanging. But we returned to serving breakfast feeling super pumped up.
A simple breakfast might not seem like much to us, but hopefully these sessions would bring these elderly together, spark some meaningful conversations, and give them something to look forward to each month
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Yeeling, Participant:
Usually during my school days as a CCA of community service my teacher would bring us to elderly’s homes and chat with them, but this time around was my first time joining the breakfast project. We prepared the food by ourselves and served them. After, the smile on their face will make you happy.
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All Time Favourite: Our 10 Years' Gifts, Community | 1 Comment
What: Sponsorship of four trees (representing RBKD) in Rui En’s name, at East Coast Park, through NParks under the NParks’ Garden City Fund
When: 28 May 2016
Where: East Coast Park
Participants: Allan, Ashley, Ernie, Xinyi, Yanjun, Yanling, Yanping, Yeeling, Yvonne
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Xinyi, Club President:
Planting the trees as a gift has always been our plan since 1.5 years ago. The symbolism of taking roots and growing from strength to strength is the exact message we wish to convey to Rui En, on this milestone year. That of commitment. Planting trees make sense.
But things didn’t go according to plan. The only way we could plant trees in SG (unless you plant it in your backyard), is to go through NParks, but for the past one year, the planting site has always been at the newer townparks which weren’t the most ideal for us.
Thankfully, there was a slot in May to plant trees in East Coast Park, a place Rui En had filmed at frequently. All’s good, and I’ll leave my member to share with you what went on that day. (Speaking of which it was nearly cancelled due to thunderstorm that morning, luckily the skies cleared for us, and we could proceed in the drizzle.)
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Ashley, Participant:
My first time participating in a RBKD activity and was happy to join in such a meaningful one.
We were gathered at a relatively ‘unknown’ point of East Coast Park (Green overhead crossing at Area B) on a light drizzling Saturday morning. There was a brief planting demonstration by the friendly NParks staff, before we ventured out on our own.
We split up in groups of 2-3 pax to plant the 4 trees. The actual tree planting process involved preparing the planting earth by digging the hole deep enough before putting the tree in place, backfilling and compacting. The transferring of the tree into the hole looks most difficult as the tree is quite heavy to handle – thanks to some of the NParks crew who helped out too.
A morning well spent with the nature and RBKD, and hope to return soon to ECP to observe the growth of our 4 RBKD trees.
All Time Favourite: Our 10 Years' Gifts, Community | Comments Off on All Time Favourite: Our 10 Years’ Gifts – Tree Planting at ECP
What: Chinese New Year Charity
When: 23 January 2016
Where: Ang Mo Kio
Participants: Adelyn, Allan, Angel, Bi Hui, Candice, Clarence, Edith, Eqsha, Ernie, Jamie, Jiamin, Joanne, Jonah, Melissa, Peijun, Phyllis, Rebecca, Shannon, Shu Pei, Suwei, Vanessa, Weijen, Xin Jie, Xinyi, Xu Hui, Yanjun, Yanling, Yanping, Yeeling, Yingmei, Yvonne
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Xin Jie, Participant:
One memorable part of this year’s Chinese New Year Charity has got to be the photo-taking session. 
I remembered it took about an hour, or even more!
It was also very touching to see that the elderly keep the polaroids we had taken with them over the years!!! :’) Most of them were very enthusiastic about taking photos too, which was really cute! Really heart-warming to see that they still remembered us.
It was a tiring day, but a definitely a very well-spent satisfying one.
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Allan, Participant:
This is the second year doing CNY charity with RBKD, I think being able to do this with RBKD is a very good experience. It gives me a different feeling. Thanks RBKD for letting me have meaningful memories. Hope that I can still take part in this charity next year!
What: RBKD Newspaper Collection Drive
When: October 2015
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Allan, Organiser:
This is the first time I organised a newspaper collection, I decided to do the collection simply because it’s charity!
The collection was quite fun! Had some problems loading all the boxes in one shot with only one lorry and car, so we took two days to finish the collection. The boss was nice and even helped us to load boxes to the lorry!
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What: Annual Giving (Volunteering) – Inclusive Playground Outing
When: 12 September 2015
Where: Canberra Park
Participants: Allan, Bengyan, Bi Hui, Celest, Ernie, Jiamin, Joanne, Madeline, Peijun, Phyllis, Rui En, Ser Chee, Shirley, Shu Pei, Xinyi, Yanling, Yanjun, Yanping, Yeeling, Yingmei, Yvonne
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Yvonne, Priority Member:
This was my first time participating in a charity event involving children. I was initially quite worried as I’m not really good with kids and how to take care of their needs. All these worries were all for naught when I saw the kids being so active. It seems to me that the beneficiaries who attended the event were not affected despite their individual conditions.
I am actually quite impressed with the beneficiaries whom I tagged with throughout the event. Just when I’m about to introduce myself to him, he already started asking if we could go to the playground during the event. He’s one of the most active and enthusiastic kids during the event.
After a small chat with him, he told us that he would want to be an explorer especially to the nature. I am quite surprised as the younger generation grew up in the city with technology and most would not want to get close to the nature. He is quite adventurous in trying out things, however taking into consideration his safety, there were times that we would have to disappoint him. Nevertheless could see that he really enjoyed the activities and the playground facilities; as he wanted to stay longer although the event has ended.
Looking forward to the next event although it can be quite tiring, it’s all worthwhile when you see the kids enjoying themselves (so carefree).
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Yingmei, Priority Member:
I think it was my first time participating for Annual Giving volunteering event? I’m glad I did! This year’s was something different from the previous years’, our beneficiaries were children! So on Saturday morning, we made our way down to Canberra Park where they had special facilities in the playground! Each of us was attached to a beneficiary or their sibling. For me, Bihui and I were paired with a super outgoing boy.
We started with Treasure Hunt around the park to get the kids excited with rewards aka candy! We then played Captain Foosball, an adaptation from a game we played in Orientation earlier this year. Then, we brought the kids around for mini carnival games like ‘shoot the can’, ‘throw the ball into the box’ etc. My beneficiary really enjoyed the ‘shoot the can’ game!
After carnival games came lunch finally~ We got Happy meals for the kids and they liked the toys too. It was kinda a free-and-easy session afterwards where we could play in the playground. The highlight was possibly the see-saw! Lots of kids could play on the see-saw at once and it was like playing on viking ship in theme parks haha.
It was a tiring day, but fulfilling too! It was nice to know that the children enjoyed themselves
Annual Giving, Community, weareone | Comments Off on Annual Giving (Volunteering) – Inclusive Playground Outing
What: Chinese New Year Charity
When: 24 January 2015
Where: Ang Mo Kio
Participants: Adelyn, Alberton, Allan, Bengyan, Bi Hui, Candice, Celest, Celest’s mum, Clarence, Corine, Edith, Ernie, Huiyi, Jaslin, Jean, Jewel, Jiamin, Joanne, Jolie, Lionel, Lirong, Melissa, Peijun, Phyllis, Ser Chee, Shannon, Shirley, Shu Pei, Shuwen, Squeen, Suwei, Vanessa, Weijen, Xin Jie, Xinyi, Xu Hui, Yanjun, Yanling, Yanping, Yeeling, Yvonne, Zhiqing
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Weijen, Participant:
I feel I am very privileged to be able to participate in this activity, organised for the 5th time by RBKD. I consider it a privilege because 2015’s charity benefited the highest number of elderly, after it has been 5 years since we started it. I consider it a privilege because throughout the day, I found out that every year, RBKD tries to learn from the experience and improve from it year after year. Obviously, for the 5th year, I think RBKD is already pretty established in how they do it, more effectively and efficiently.
I think being able to do this with RBKD is a very humbling experience. It gives me a different feeling, for example, to see a different side of Singapore, in person. It is also a fantastic day in terms of bonding with fellow Rangels. My team: Corine, Vannesa and Team Leader Shu Wen, it is a joy to be in a team with them. I think we complement each other well, of course I mean that I complement well in the sense that I can speak many languages! hahaha :D
Overall, I don’t really think this annual charity was as tough as what I imagined. Much of the work are in the preparation stage e.g. securing sponsors, so I really think what I did on that day, to deliver the goodie bags to the elderly, is just a tiny part of the job: a job that requires lots of teamwork and dedication, especially on the organising committee. They are truly the people who make things happen. Credits to them, really. Truly proud of you, Rangels and RBKD!
This aunty has a really cute dog, the white dog in the picture. I think my team spent the longest time with her among the 19 families we delivered our goodie bags to. Because the aunty was a really friendly person and the dog is simply too adorable!
It is a shame that this pic is quite blur, but we took this when 2 teams ran into each other in the lift! Spontaneous right?! That’s why I like it! :D
This pic was taken when we were already done with all the delivery job and having our break before dinner. Amazing that a selfie can be taken with sooo many people right?! Jean is really good at it! and of course, Rangels are also ever ready for photos! :D
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Edith, Participant:
I’m very happy to be able to participate in the RBKD CNY charity this year as I always feel that doing charity work is a very good way for me to contribute back to the society.
We started the day by packing all the necessary items into different bags so that the distribution process will be smoother. And after packing, it’s time to distribute the items to all the elderly!
We went house to house to visit each and every elderly in the block. It’s heartwarming to see the smiles on the elderly’s faces when we gave them the items and this made me feel that a simple act of kindness is enough to make someone’s day.
That day was a fun and enriching day and I hope to be able to take part in next year’s RBKD CNY charity again.
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Ser Chee, Participant:
CNY Charity – An Annual Affair.
An event that if I don’t attend, I would felt as if there’s something missing. It’s part of my CNY now.
5 years. 5 different kinds of experiences and thoughts.
But one thing remains the same. The gains, the takeaways, that’s forever increasing with each time.
Drowned in our normal hectic lives, that very often we forget to slow down and care for the people around us.
This opportunity which I really appreciate a lot, allows me the chance to give back a little.
This charity serves as a reminder.
To remind me that there are many around who are less fortunate.
To remind me that I shouldn’t take many things for granted.
To remind me that I shouldn’t forget to show love and care for my loved ones.
Really thankful to the committee for all their hard work.
Without them, without this charity, I wouldn’t have the chance to give back.
I know a ‘Thank You’ is never enough. But still, ‘Thank You!!’
And also thank you all members who made this yet another memorable experience for me.
Community | Comments Off on RBKD CNY Charity 2015 as Rui En’s Birthday Gift
What: CNY Charity Preparation
When: Mid-Jan 2015
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Phyllis, Participant:
Few years back we took approximately 4-5 days to finish baking the cookies.
Last year, we took 2-3 days.
And this year? we managed to finish baking 280 bottles of honey joys in 1.5 days!
I guess we are getting the hang of it? Haha!
Fun facts aside, I think being able to be involved in the preparation leading up to the charity drive is definitely a meaningful one. Although it might seem like a daunting task to bake in such large quantity, the joy derived upon the completion of every bottle is unmeasurable.
This year unlike previous years, we received voucher sponsorship! Well, I was tasked with the job to jot down all the elderly’s names and unit numbers on every piece of voucher and red packet. There were literally 8 stacks of vouchers + 1 big stack of red packets piled in front of me and I was wondering to myself if it would even be possible to finish writing their details on it manually! Haha but I guess it would not be an RBKD event without some challenges right?
With all that being said, I am thankful to be given this opportunity yet again to participate in this charity drive. Thank you all who contributed to the preparation leading up to the final day because without you all it would not have been possible!
Community | Comments Off on RBKD CNY Charity 2015 – Preparation
