Social service veteran Gerard Ee remembers well the moment he became “addicted” to helping others.
Some 30 years ago, Mr Ee was roped in by his father, the late Dr Ee Peng Liang, founder of Community Chest, to help with the logistics for a Community Chest TV show.
While he was there managing the logistics, the hours he spent speaking to the people on the show – from children to adults with disabilities – inspired and motivated him, said Mr Ee.
“When you spend time talking to them, you get inspired by their courage, and motivated to say ‘maybe I can do something more for them’,” said Mr Ee, 69.
He ended up spending more than three decades working in the social service sector and wearing many hats – from being chairman of the now-defunct Toa Payoh Girls’ Home, to taking over as chairman of the National Kidney Foundation after the organisation’s corruption scandal in 2005.
For his contributions, Mr Ee was presented the Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer Award by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) yesterday (9 Nov). It is the highest accolade of the MSF Volunteer Awards that pay tribute to passionate and dedicated volunteers of the ministry. He was among 163 volunteers honoured at the annual ceremony, started in 1995.
Mr Ee said the outcomes of his team’s efforts have kept him going all these years. For example, he has witnessed how former Toa Payoh Girls’ Home residents found jobs in the cosmetics sector, after attending the hairdressing and make-up courses that he introduced to the home.
“When you see that the effort you put in makes such a big difference in other people’s lives, you want to do more,” said Mr Ee. “To impact other people’s lives, it’s addictive.”
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Source: The Straits Times, 10 November 2018