About Servathon 2015

Servathon 2015 is a one-of-its-kind community service marathon. The objectives of Servathon were:

  1. To raise greater awareness of various Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) and beneficiaries to potential volunteers
  2. To provide an avenue for meaningful interaction between the volunteers and beneficiaries
  3. To encourage more volunteers to serve regularly at the various VWOs

 

Based on the idea of a marathon, Servathon consisted of two routes, where volunteers on each route served three VWOs in a day. Each 2.5-hours session with a VWO was uniquely tailored to its beneficiary’s needs. As Servathon aims to provide volunteers with exposure to a diversity of beneficiaries, the VWOs were determined through the profiles of the beneficiaries they serve. The urgency of the needs of their beneficiaries as well as those with potential lack of long-term volunteers were also prioritised. VWOs involved in Servathon 2015 were:

  • Children-At-Risk-Empowerment Association (CARE Singapore)
  • Trybe
  • Disabled People’s Association (DPA)
  • Club Rainbow
  • BizLink
  • SASCO DACE

 

The day ended with a Finale where volunteers across routes shared their experiences with one another.

The Highlights

Working with members of the public

As students, most of our experiences are limited to planning small projects that are directed towards the student population in our various schools. However, through this project, we were able to experience working with those from other organisations, volunteers and organisers alike. Since we allowed members of the public to sign up for Servathon, the volunteers ranged easily from the 20s to the 50s. Despite the age differences, it was heartening to see the passion to serve being exactly the same. Listening to their diverse experiences with volunteering and interacting with them during the Finale was very fun too. We were also touched by organisations who were so willing to help us by sponsoring different parts of our event and helped make this event successful.

Impacting beneficiaries

Nothing leaves a lasting memory as much as the smiles of the faces of the beneficiaries at the end of each event. Despite months after months of arduous planning, all the hard work and effort becomes worth it when we see the beneficiaries and volunteers enjoying themselves through the activities that we planned for them. Nothing can be compared to this sense of satisfaction in pulling through the project to deliver what we set out to do at the start.

The Memories

Reflection #1 – The Challenges

Coordination for the Committee

Due to the nature of the project, we had to liaise between student committee members from different universities and CityCare. The vastly different timetables and large number of planning members made it hard to plan together as a whole committee. However, we were able to overcome this by leveraging on Skype meetings as well as structured committees to disseminate information. NTU students took on the responsibility of anchoring and overseeing Servathon, including the coordination of information flow across the various universities. Moreover, the passion that the leaders from various institutions displayed to push the event through to the end despite the difficulty in planning process was inspiring.

Disruptions in the eleventh hour

There were many last-minute withdrawals/late arrivals to the event, which affected the planning for our manpower allocation and made it hard for us to confirm attendance for Servathon. To resolve this, we appointed team leaders among the volunteers to confirm attendance of their volunteer groups and tried to maximise the number of sign-ups to ensure sufficient manpower for Servathon in anticipation of people withdrawing from it.

Reflection #2 – The Takeaways

As the saying goes, “Giving is receiving”, the takeaway from this experience was invaluable for the team. Interactions with the beneficiaries cleared some myths about them, for example elderly with dementia do not suffer immediate memory disorder. In addition, we were humbled by the beneficiaries’ positive attitude and resolution as we witness how they persistently passed each game station in the game carnival, actively sparring in sports and enthusiastically putting up performances for everyone. At times, they are the ones who encourages the volunteers to keep going. Through this experience, it has benefitted not only the beneficiaries but also us who were mentally and intellectually empowered.

If there is one thing that we could change to make the planning process even better, it would be an earlier implementation of an effective communication structure. At the initial stages of the project, as we were still searching for the best and most effective format to carry out the project, communication across institutions was scarce and led to inefficient progress. Only during the later stages of the project, was a more efficient system of communication set up. This led to better discussion and progression of the project’s planning as a whole.

When the planning team is big, it may be advisable for the heads to make the big decisions rather than letting everyone have a say. When we tried to seek everyone’s opinions for major decisions, replies were untimely and usually only the heads have all the necessary information and can see the big picture for the major decisions.