YFC: Wheelchair basketball Association (WBA)

Story of Team N-ABLE '11

Team N-ABLE 11’ came about when 4brave souls decided to take up the challenge of raising funds for Wheelchair Basketball Association (WBA), a non-profit organisation that provides qualified individuals with physical disabilities the opportunity to play, learn, and compete in the sport of Wheelchair Basketball. We saw that WBA was deeply in need of funds as they lack sufficient facilities for their trainings, and we felt the urge to help them overcome their difficulties, so that they can excel in their passion for basketball.

From this burning desire to help, we applied for Youth for Causes so as to acquire seed money to start our project running. We came out with multiple ideas and in the end; we adopted the strategy of raising funds by selling merchandise and organising events. We made badges, shirts, straw hearts, cookies, and more! 

Shirt Design

Badges

We also wanted to advocate to the public about WBA so as to allow others to accept them and support them. Thus, we had our very own Wheelchair Basketball competition, where we saw many able-bodies competing in wheelchairs to have a firsthand experience of how WBA personnel would feel.

Participant in wheelchair taking a shot

Also, through mobilization of volunteers who shared our same passion, we managed to spread the word about WBA through our street sales in orchard, as well as churches in Singapore. In total, we managed to raise a profit of $1440.15 for WBA! Throughout this project, the greatest achievement would definitely be the growth in each of us, to be better servant leaders with the passion to advocate changes.

Everyone wants to change the world but not everybody wants to change. What about you?

Brought to you by:

Team N-able '11

Project Acknowledgement 2011

Target Audience: We aimed to reach out to our peers and seniors to foster greater awareness of the necessity and importance of our non-teaching staff.

What we have done:

General Overview- To enable to reach the students more effectively, we centred our advocacy on the central theme of trees. The contributions of the non-teaching staff are very much similar in that they are often unnoticed, yet when we really think about it, indispensable.

Our metaphorical branches of advocacy took the form of a presentation to the student body, an appreciation tree and a video presentation during the school’s annual Teachers’ Day celebration. The appreciation tree allowed the participation of the entire student body, tasking each class to write messages of appreciation to specific members of the non-teaching staff and sharing their personal stories of gratitude. Both presentations were well-received and served as an encouraging reminder to the non-teaching staff of our appreciation as well as creating greater awareness amongst the students. Lastly, eye-catching reminder labels were plastered around the school, reminding the students to “Greet, Smile, Thank” (G.S.T.). 

Our Unsung Heroes from Saints Advocate on Vimeo

Yellow Ribbon Project

Organization:Yellow Ribbon Project

The Yellow Ribbon Project (YRP) is an organisation that aims to seek to engage the community in accepting ex-offenders and their families by giving them a second chance at life and to include actions to support ex-offenders and their families.

How they help?

The Yellow Ribbon Fund (YRF) uses donations to develop and implement reintegration programmes for the ex-offenders with the genuine desire to change for the better. They also hope to support and strengthen the ties of their families through Family Support Programmes.

What we did?

The Saint Advocates have conducted an in-school fundraising sales selling namely:

Yellow Ribbon Tie Pins

Exclusive to SAJC due to the unique culture of having a tie as a part of the school uniform

A special way to show support for YRP as SAJC students.

Yellow Flowers

Tying in with the theme of “yellow”, these flowers are nice gifts to purchase for friends and teachers to show your appreciation.

Publicity Posters

Conclusion: 

Raised a total of $500 in profit for YRP.

Learning Journey to Pathlight School

Special needs.

Whenever we hear this particular term, we often assume such people have disability and hence require charity. At the Student Leadership Dialogue at Pathlight School, this view was challenged.

Why is a person different?

What is autism                                                      

Seated in a state of the art auditorium complete with hi-tech equipment, one would not expect what was to come.

‘What is joy and meaning to you?’

This was what Ms Denise Phua, Chairperson of Autism Resource Centre and MP of Jalan Besar GRC, challenged us at the annual Student Leadership Dialogue at Pathlight School.

It was evident that a life of service and empowering others was hers. She shared her inspiring story of how learning that her son was diagnosed with autism compelled her to champion the autism cause. It was with this passion that enabled Pathlight to be born.

The fruits of her labour can be seen from the impressive architecture and state of the art technology at Pathlight to the planning and execution of education.

The programme at Pathlight is catered for children from the different autism spectrums, with both the academic track and vocational track in place so that the students could fully tap into their abilities.

Pathlight uses the same academic curriculum as mainstream primary and secondary schools, unlike many special needs schools. This was to empower students with a full-fledged education, such that they will be dignified because they do not deserve less simply due to special needs.

For the vocational training, Pathlight collaborates with Starbucks and Mr Bean allowing their students to pick up valuable life skills such as preparing and serving food. All these trainings are conducted within the Pathlight campus, with a quasi-cafeteria doubling up as their workstation.

As the dialogue closed, I asked her what are the problems that youth today face, with respect to serving the community. She simply replied – the same as everyone else: Time. It’s about making the seconds count.

This philosophy of hers extends to the entire school, displayed by staff and students alike.

The eager and earnest students of Pathlight School, who were wearing smiles all the time, served us refreshments that they had prepared themselves. I could really see the pride and joy they put into their work, something many of us could definitely learn from.

With that, I would like to end off with a quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, that summarizes what is the essence of what a person is.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

YFC: La Esperanza (Chen Su Lan Methodist Children's Home)

Organization:

Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home (CSLMCH)

What we have done:

One main cause that our group is passionate about is cultivating the artistic talents of youths. Therefore, we have put in place the idea of organizing an art concert to raise fund for these children at SAJC Cultural Centre on the 22^nd July,2011. 

The concert La Esperanza was welcome by students from different junior colleges around Singapore and performers are youths from schools such as Saint Andrew’s Junior College, Hwa Chong Institution, Catholic Junior College, Raffles Institution,etc. Children from Chen Su Lan Methodist Children’s Home also got an opportunity to showcase their talents through a performance which received much support from the audience.

Achievement:
Through this, we have achieved the dual purpose of being able to raise more than $1500 in all from the ticket and also to raise public awareness of CSLMCH. To help us achieve our target, more than 30 recruited volunteers from Saint Advocates of Saint Andrew’s Junior College have willingly served as runners and ushers on the day of the concert. This event has provided opportunities for the children in CSLMCH as well as the students involved in the concert to showcase their artistic talents as well as showcase the importance of artistic cultivation in youths.

Funds raised from this project went to CSL Methodist Children's Home,which helps children from needy and disadvantaged families.