Big Hearts, Big Dreams compiles the stories of the 31 people in the running for The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year award, which was begun in 2015 by The Straits Times and supported by bank UBS to recognise Singaporeans who had made headlines and inspired the community.
It took ST senior writer Wong Kim Hoh two months to catch up with most of the award’s finalists from 2015 and 2016 and to flesh out their stories.
“It jolts you a bit to know that there are people out there who cared so deeply that they would do such selfless acts,” says the 56-year-old, who is best known for his interviews with inspiring Singaporeans in his weekly It Changed My Life series in The Sunday Times.
Mr Wong spent late nights and weekends on lengthy interviews with the nominees in order to pick up interesting nuggets from their histories that would enable him to retell their stories anew.
“It takes guts and gumption to act on what you want to do,” says Mr Wong.
The 10 finalists this year range from para-athlete Jason Chee, who overcame the loss of his limbs and eye to clinch medals for Singapore in table-tennis, to award-winning film-maker Kirsten Tan and Ms Qin Yunquan, who teaches self-defence to the needy and former victims of crime.
Their stories will be included in later editions of the book.
Mr Wong hopes Big Hearts, Big Dreams will inspire Singaporeans. “It is only through stories that you realise what you think is impossible is in fact possible. Stories help to ground us. They make us gripe less and do more.”
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Source: The Straits Times, 28 January 2018