The Boys' Brigade Sharity Gift Box 2008

Delivering Cheer

2008-12-14T22:32:00.001-08:00

Saturday morning was tiring but definitely fun. We began the delivery of general wishes with the official car flag off.

This year, for the first time, we had a Guest-of-Honour for the event: Nominated Member of Parliament and one of BBSGB Ambassador, Ms Eunice Olsen. She flagged off a convoy of 28 Rav4 cars that were led out of ACS Barker Road Car Park in style by four Harley Davidson motorbikes, which captured the fiery spirit of the project in the resounding roar of their engines.

After the flag off, Eunice got into one of the Rav4 cars to make deliveries with the convoy. The Rav4 convoy also voluntarily acted as the mode of transport for 15 youths from Beyond Social Services to do delivery of food hampers to the beneficiaries. This is the first time a voluntary welfare organisation is taking an active participation in the delivery. These youths are also recipients of BBSGB but did their part to give the Christmas cheer to others as much as they receive.

The rationale of organising a car delivery flag off is to encourage and allow members of the public to experience the joy of sharing and giving through personal involvement. Food items that are collected and packed into bags are loaded into the vehicles and these are delivered to the beneficiaries. This is the third time we are running the event and response was overwhelming.

Most regrettably, we had to reject many who volunteered. This is not because we have too many drivers. Rather, we have too little food bags to give away.

The project aims to benefit more than 18,000 beneficiaries with these food bags, which can typically provide them with an estimate 6 months of supplies. Sadly, the project currently has only collected about 40% of what is needed to fill these bags for the 18.000 beneficiaries. We are 4 days away from closing the project, and can only pray very hard that Singaporeans would come forward with donations with enough to fill the remaining empty bags.

The project ask for not your cash but our low count products (cooking oil, hallal can food, cereals). You can buy from anywhere...FairPrice, Cold Storage, Seng Shiong etc. Drop them off our giftbox outside Takashimaya, our giftboxes at 13 FairPrice outlets or at the BB HQ off Zion Road (Opposite great world city).

For more information, you can go to www.bbsgb.org.sg

Sincerely, we plead for your support to allow us to continue to delivery cheer to our beneficiaries.

Technorati Tags: Charity,Boys' Brigade,Sharity,Car,Flag off,Delivery,Beneficiaries,Beneficiary,Food,Donations,Donation,Donating,Help,Rav4,Drivers,Driver,Cars

Launching Sharity Gift Box

2008-11-30T21:36:00.001-08:00

On 28th November, we returned to the main box of BBSGB to launch the project. It's meaningful because we have not been launching the project at the main box for a few years. Returning to the main box at our 21st year symbolised a coming-of-age thingie.

Despite the current financial turmoil, BBSGB is determined to fulfil the Christmas wishes of more than 28,000 beneficiaries. The project unveiled the main box and begins its call out to the public to donate food & household items.

Guest-of-Honour President SR Nathan, who is also the patron of the Boys' Brigade Singapore, unveiled the Main Box with three BBSGB ambassadors - Beatrice Chia-Richmond, Yip Pin Xiu (Team Singapore Paralympian, Beijing Paralympic Gold Medallist - 50m Backstorke) and Mok Ying Ren (Team Singapore Triathlon Athlete, SEA Games 2007 Gold Medallist).

Appealing to the public not to hold back even in these bad times, President SR Nathan and the ambassadors call for Singaporeans to come forward and donate charitably.

NTUC FairPrice took the lead of the collection drive by being the first to donate 14 trolleys filled with FairPrice food & household items. Each trolley is represented by a branch manager which indicates the number of outlets the other Sharity Gift Boxes are located at.

Group CEO presented the first trolley to the "boys in blue" who received the items on behalf of the Boys' Brigade. This symbolic act was witnessed by President SR Nathan, which marked the significance of the start of the collection of food & household items from the public.

And of course Orchard Road was invaded by our "boys in blue"...

Join in the project today! www.bbsgb.org.sg

Technorati Tags: Charity,Boys' Brigade,Christmas,Gifts,Wishes,Beneficiaries,President Nathan,Singapore,Gift Box,Event,Opening,Ceremony

Early Cheer To Mabel & Fathu

2008-11-26T19:48:00.001-08:00

We held the media conference for The Boys' Brigade Sharity Gift Box 2008 (BBSGB) back on 11th Nov where we shared with the media the numbers and statistics for this year and our optimistic view that we would be able to continue bringing Christmas cheer to the less privileged despite challenges in fund-raising efforts for our operational costs.

BBSGB remains as one of Singapore’s longest running and largest charity project during the year-end season. The project returns for her 21^st year aiming to raise general household items and specific gifts for a total of 28,189 beneficiaries. Of these beneficiaries, 3,000 are on the Public Assistance (PA) Scheme with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports; and the remaining beneficiaries come from a total of 171 Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs).

One of the BBSGB 2008 Ambassadors, Mr. Mok Ying Ren, Team Singapore Triathlon Athlete, SEA Games 2007 Gold Medallist, took the lead in giving and helped to fulfil the Christmas wishes of two children with special needs at AWWA School today. One of them, Fathu Robian Shah is aged 10 and had wish for a Lego construction set for Christmas.

This is the happy Fathu:

Mabel had wished for a gym tunnel. She uses such a gym tunnel in school as a form of exercise for herself and had wished that she would have one at home as well so that she can continue her exercises at home with her siblings. Her joy at receiving the gift genuinely touched everyone this morning. When called on stage to receive the gift, Mabel surprised everyone by dashing immediately to the tunnel and crawling in, leaving our Chairman stranded alone with the box. But nobody could prevent our own faces from smiling as we realise how significant this gift must be mean to Mabel and her family.

The fundamental principle of BBSGB is to spread the spirit of caring and sharing to the needy by enforcing the role of social responsibility from the nation. It is a project that encourages everyone to play a role in the community beyond cash donations, such as the fulfillment of Specific Wishes, donation of food items and the actual actions of packing and delivery of the gifts to the less fortunate. The project relies on the public to make direct donations of general household items and the specific gifts requested by beneficiaries. Donations from the public is used directly and entirely to benefit the beneficiaries of the project and not used for operating expenses. In 2007, it is estimated that the items donated by the public was worth close to S$3 million.

BBSGB 2008 faced its first challenge of not raising enough money for the operating expenses required to run the project. The project depends on corporate sponsors to raise the operating cost of running the project annually – at about $250,000. This amount is used to fund the warehousing, operations, transport and administrative support required to run the project. The project has currently only raised $120,000 thus far for operating expenses.

Well, watch this space, as we'll give everyone more information as to how to take part in BBSGB 2008. We are opening the entire project this Friday at Orchard Road, outside of Ngee Ann City! Join us there at 2.30pm!

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Charity,Wishes,Help,Boys' Brigade,BBSGB,Cheer,Sharity