Collectively, the students from four schools shared $13,341.25 of their Chinese New Year red packet money to St. John’s Home. 

For children and youths, part of the joy of Chinese New Year is receiving 'Ang Baos' (red packets). 

This year, students from Ang Mo Kio Primary School, Cedar Girls’ Secondary School, Changkat Primary School and Tao Nan School shared part of their 'Ang Bao money' with a Charity - St. John's Home for Elderly Persons. 

Collectively, the students from these four schools donated $13,341.25 of their Chinese New Year red packet money to St. John’s Home. 

And the donations from Cedar Girls’ Secondary School’s students made up half of that amount - $6,814.30. Ms Saran Dhillon, the teacher in charge, has made this into a competition, where the class (and individual student) who raised the highest amount of money will receive a token of appreciation.

This is the first time that the Home ran such a campaign, and we are grateful for the support from the schools. 

“Thirteen thousand dollars is a lot of money. We are touched by the generosity of the students.  And we are very grateful to the teachers, students and parents for the support,” chairman of the Home, Mr Woon Wee Yim, said.

For these schools, it is not just a fundraising campaign, but rather part of the Values In Action programme. Schools such as Tao Nan School has already been supporting the Home before this fundraising campaign. Their students have been visiting the elderly, and interacting with them.

Changkat Primary School’s Primary Four students will be visiting the elderly at St. John’s Home in the later part of the year

And the teacher in charge at Ang Mo Kio Primary commented, “We emphasized to the students that they must give willingly. We told them that if they don’t want to give, it is fine, because we want them to give joyfully.”

As the Home steps out of its comfort zone and venture into other forms of fundraising, the good results from this campaign serves as motivation for us to press forward, to raise the $12 million (or more) required for our building redevelopment project.