Schools, companies getting in on the SEA Games action
Fireworks are set off during the finale of the Opening Ceremony of the SEA Games in Singapore, Friday, June 5, 2015. Photo: AP
SINGAPORE — From sport-themed skits to handwritten notes of encouragement to athletes, companies and schools have been drumming up buzz in the lead up to the SEA Games.
Professional services firm Deloitte Singapore, for instance, has more than 160 staff volunteering at the multi-sport event. The company, which is also a partner of the Games, took part in the 50-Day Countdown, in which organisations form numbers from one to 50 in a countdown to the official start of the tournament.
Meanwhile, OCBC Bank said more than 200 staff and their families will head to the various games venues after work to catch the action, in buses hired by the bank.
And staff and customers at NTUC FairPrice have come together to write notes of encouragement to competing athletes. Customers were also encouraged to make dolls of the 2015 SEA Games mascot Nila for the athletes. In total, 400 Nila dolls were created.
Activities to create buzz among students have equally been well under way. One of them was the SEA Games’ Modular School Programme, in which 217 schools took part in a range of activities, such as creating art pieces from recycled materials for the SEA Games Torch Up! event, as well as staging skits on sports and the Games.
Groups of students were also seen at the various games venues at the Sports Hub, decked out in red, with clappers and banners in hand.
There were also student volunteers, such as 15-year-old Aw Jing Xuan, a volunteer first-aider, who told TODAY that “it was a meaningful way to spend the June holidays and gain experience as a first-aider in large-scale events”.
At the table tennis doubles finals on Tuesday evening, around 120 Nee Soon South residents came to the Singapore Indoor Stadium in a show of support.
After the confetti had come down and the crowd started dispersing, they put on their gloves and began cleaning up the area. Their Member of Parliament, Dr Lee Bee Wah, who was with the residents, told TODAY the finals was also in collaboration with the residents’ monthly litter picking session.
Dr Lee added that in the lead up the games, activities were in her constituency, like a meet and greet session with local athletes. “I think athletes should be very much part of the community. Our support motivates them amid their gruelling training schedules, while at the same time supporting them can be a chance to promote community bonding, national pride and initiatives like healthy living and litter-picking,” she said.
A spokesperson from the Punggol North constituency said the community centre is among several holding live screenings of the games. At the same time, sports interest groups like badminton and swimming will be organising groups to head down to the games venue to catch the action.
