Singapore, December 2007/January 2008
It started out as a simple one-day project where volunteers were divided into four teams to help their assigned families make over their home so as to improve their living conditions. Each team was given a budget of S$500.00 to pay for the necessary materials required. The two unique features of this volunteer projects are - first, volunteers have to consult their beneficiary family to find out their needs and customize their volunteer work according to their interests and second, all four teams are pitted against each other to win a prize money of S$500.00 which will be donated to the winning team's beneficiary family in form of a food hamper and vouchers.
An independent panel of judges made up by the General Manager of Tanjong Pager Family Service Centre* (the nonprofit whom we partnered), Mr Wong Kwong Sing; Mr Gary Luton, Director Asia Services (who is not involved in the project) and Mr Jason Wee, Assistant Director of Corporate Giving, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, were selected to score the teams on their home makeover efforts. The judges' identities were not made known to the volunteers and the reports of their work were submitted anonymously to the judges in order to ensure a fair decision was made.
When the project was finally completed, we had some 33 Salesforce employees, with additional help from family and friends, clocked a whopping total of 316.5 hours or 39.5 days for this project. The project had burgeoned beyond the Foundation's expectations and took on a larger scale and impact as a result of employee's passion and determination to make a real difference to the families they are helping. Several volunteers appealed to their friends and families to donate or sponsor household items and furniture while others roped in contacts and business partners to purchase materials at discounted prices so that they could do more with the given budget. Despite the competitive nature of the project, teams shared information with each other and even pass down materials which could be re-used to the unfinished teams. Much of the work was done during lunch time where preparations was concerned and the actual home makeover on the weekends where the volunteers made repeated trips to the homes in order to make sure that the place is properly ‘renovated' before it is deemed completed.
A big thank you to all volunteers and especially the four volunteer leaders, namely Alyce Chow, Sarah Yeom, Sharon Sun and Fiona Salas who helped lead their teams in organizing and working with their assigned families on their home makeover needs.
And who won the prize money? The Happy House team made up by Sarah Yeom, Luke Lin, Stephanie Tang, Wan Zhen Liew, Lynette Tan, Byung Kyu Choi, Mickey Park supported by the other G&A employees in cash or in-kind donations. Congratulations!!
*The Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre is a community-based nonprofit whose aim is to enhance family functioning through the provision of remedial, preventive and developmental services. They position themselves as a generalist first-stop centre which families can turn to for assistance in any matter relating to family life and ensure that their programmes and services meet the specific needs of the local community in the Tanjong Pagar district.
Go here to see the links of the before and after pictures of the Home MakeOver projects by the respective teams: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15359131@N05/collections/
Team Happy House - Before
After
