Grassroot Volunteerism

I was a volunteer with PAYM during Chingay afew years back. I recall the PA salaried employees to be really nice and sweet to us volunteers, we were handsomely rewarded with adequate rations and rest, and we got to cozy up with Minister Chan Chun Sing when He showed up to give us and our participating students the moral support that we needed. They were so nice to us that when we ended slightly later than usual for the training, they hired coach buses that brought us all the way from City area back home in our respective regions e.g. Woodlands, Yishun, etc.

Apart from PAYM I also informally volunteer with NParks, NEA, Pioneer Generation Office, Woodlands Community grassroots and PAP just to name a few causes that appeal to me. For me, the PAP MPs are always in tip-top condition. They are always there to offer a listening ear if the day has been terrible for residents. For those senior PA staff and PAP stakeholders, most of them are alright, I don't expect the world from them, and they behave decently to me. To me, I have been volunteering at grassroots level since my JC days, and the community gotong royong has been an inspiring trait of Singaporean communitarianism.

I have not volunteered in opposition wards or opposition parties before, so I won't know how it's like to be with them, but I respect opposition volunteers because they are also giving back to society in their own unique ways too. Thank you to all our local grassroot activists for all the good work that you all have been doing.