The restrictions on social gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not stop volunteer groups from spreading festive cheer with their beneficiaries. As part of NTU Welfare Services Club’s Regular Service Project (Deaf Community) (WSC RSP (DC)), the annual Christmas Song Sign event was held on 12 December 2020 to share Christmas songs through sign language.
61 volunteers, including 38 newly joined members, made use of their weekly Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) lessons to interpret Christmas songs. This included an intensive one-week practice, where volunteers split up into groups to work on formations and storylines for their skits and song performances, as well as various props.
Due to COVID-19, the performances were streamed live on YouTube with the help of WSC’s Publicity and Publications (WSC PnP) branch, who coordinated and planned the flow of the performance as well as set up the livestream. Recorded in Lecture Theatre 1 (LT1) in NTU, pop Christmas songs were picked instead of the traditional carols – these included “My Song for You” by Bridgit Mendler, and “Like It’s Christmas” by Jonas Brothers.
Additionally, as the skits were aimed at sharing meaningful insights on sign language to the public, they included information about sign language as a whole, and taught viewers some of the more commonly used signs in SgSL. Alongside the sharing from members and the songs, they also included segments that helped to clear common misconceptions on sign language and the deaf community to the general public.
The 30-minute-long livestream garnered around 100 viewers, exceeding WSC RSP (DC)’s expectations. Christmas Song Sign remains an annual event by the club and will return in 2021.
Watch the livestream in the video below.
I had a fun and fulfilling time not only performing this year, but also teaching my juniors about Christmas Song Sign. I could finally understand the struggle my seniors had when they were coaching me. Although it was quite tiring, seeing my juniors improve over a span of one week was very rewarding. I’m thankful to everyone who contributed to making this event a success – from those in charge of teaching and involved in the technical areas, to those who performed and who watched our livestream. Jasper Mau, Group In-Charge
About NTU Welfare Services Club
Founded in 1985, Welfare Services Club (WSC) is a non-academic constituent club in NTU which provides an umbrella of voluntary activities and social work to all students. Besides growing from strength to strength in membership, WSC has also undergone incredible expansions in its activities to reach out to more service users every year. Currently, it runs 9 Regular Service Projects (RSPs) serving the Deaf, Elderly, Children of Low-income Families, Children with Chronic or Terminal Diseases, Intellectually Disabled, People with Mental Health Issues, Physically Challenged, Visually Handicapped and Youths-at-risk, which comprises volunteers engaging these service users weekly at various locations.
WSC also runs 5 Special Projects and 4 Supporting Committees. The Special Projects include Camp OutReach, Challenge ur Limits, Ignite Change, Overseas Volunteering Expedition and Volunteer Management and they provide additional support to service users both locally and overseas. The Supporting Committees include Finance, Growth & Opportunities!, Internal Relations and Publicity and Publications and they provide operational support to WSC. Volunteers engaged in Special Projects and Supporting Committees gain invaluable skills in entrepreneurship, events management, planning, coordination and many more.
