Speech by President S R Nathan at the Patron's Bowl

Distinguished guests and friends,

1.      Thank you for taking time to join me at the Patron’s Bowl this evening.  I am delighted to share this event, which brings together leaders of business corporations and non-profit organizations, for an evening of camaraderie and networking and also mark President’s Challenge this year.

2.      I started President’s Challenge in 2000 to create awareness and arouse consciousness among our people about help for the less fortunate among us.  The aim is also to raise funds for the social service sector, especially for those charities that are too small to raise all that they need on their own.  Over the years, the Challenge has helped to provide funds for projects like therapy for people with cerebral palsy and leprosy, help former drug addicts to rebuild their lives, and even towards building a new community hospital.  This year, we can look forward to helping disabled children learn IT skills, assisting our seniors to connect with students, and providing rehabilitative services to those with Parkinson’s Disease, all of whom make up our 32 beneficiaries targetted for this year.

3.      I know that many of you are already doing your part for the disadvantaged.  Some of you have become household names when it comes to sponsoring charity events, promoting the arts and giving back to the community.  I commend you for continuing such efforts, and your efforts at encouraging your staff to be involved in your charitable work.

Corporate Social Responsibility

4.      But Corporate Social Responsibility goes well beyond the dollars and cents.  True charity calls for enablement, inclusion and respect.  Many of you have introduced dedicated employee volunteering programmes in your organizations.  For example, Hewlett-Packard had a Volunteer Day last year where its staff endeavored to meet the wishes of some of the beneficiaries of President’s Challenge.  For a group of residents from an old age home, their wish was to visit Changi Airport.  It did not take much for a few staff of HP to fulfill that wish, but it meant the world for the residents of the home, many of whom had never been there.

5.      To those who have adopted some of the charities to benefit from your generosity of time, money and even expertise, I thank you.  For the rest, I encourage you to take the first step and set aside just one day, in between now and the end of the year, to allow your senior management team and employees to step out and help the less fortunate in whatever ways they can.  I’m sure they will find it a most rewarding experience.

6.      I hope that when you reach out to the less fortunate, you will not confine it to your organizations but will also get the community involved in your activities.  When you create invaluable partnerships with the people in general, they will not only better understand but more importantly appreciate your organisations as good corporate citizens.

7.      This year, we can look forward to some refreshing fundraising and volunteer events, many of which will attempt to include the community, so that the man in the street can also do his part.

8.      The $8.8 million raised last year has enabled the total sum raised by President’s Challenge over the past seven years to exceed $50 million.  I hope that we can raise at least eight million dollars this year.  I thank all of you who have contributed to this achievement.

9.       It would be remiss of me to end without mentioning those without whom none of this would be possible.  My sincere appreciation goes to Singapore Totalisator Board and Singapore Pools for their unfailing generosity in underwriting the costs of President’s Challenge, and the Singapore Turf Club for providing this platform for me to reach out to the corporate sector this evening.

10.      I also wish to thank everyone who has contributed towards the President’s Challenge in one way or another.  Let us all work together to bring hope into the lives of those in need.

           I wish all of you a pleasant evening.