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Gleneagles to raise $43,200 to help schoolchildren

Children learning about giving first aid in an “emergency” situation at Gleneagles Hospital’s 60th Anniversary Carnival. The hospital has pledged to raise funds to help 60 beneficiaries of The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund with $60 a month for a year.       ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

In celebration of its 60th anniversary this year, Gleneagles Hospital has pledged to raise funds to help 60 beneficiaries of The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) with $60 a month for one year to cover their food and transport expenses.

The private hospital has pledged to raise at least $43,200 for the STSPMF, which started in 2000 as a community project initiated by The Straits Times. The charity provides pocket money to children from low-income families to help them through school.

Gleneagles said staff contributions in an ongoing fundraising effort will be matched dollar for dollar and the hospital will top up any balance to reach the sum.

It held a carnival on its premises on Sunday, when it hosted more than 500 people to a fairy-tale themed event titled Healthy Ever After. Families with children took part in a heritage walk, gained health tips from characters like White Rabbit and Humpty Dumpty at interactive game stations, and watched a play featuring fairy-tale characters and their encounters with medical emergencies.

Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor was the guest of honour at the event. Public donations collected during the carnival will be added to the fundraising effort, the hospital said.

 Ms Hui Hwa Koh-Minjoot, the hospital’s chief executive, said the carnival on Sunday was her first public event as CEO, adding: “It was here that I delivered my children... it is where my personal fairy-tale of becoming a mother came true, not once, not twice, but three times.

“So I think it is totally apt that we have transformed the hospital into a fairy-tale wonderland.”

The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.