SO Volunteers: Touching lives with their dedication
By Valerie Looi
These selfless individuals help keep Special Olympics (SO) going strong. They sacrifice some weekday nights and weekends to teach SO athletes how to swim, run, bowl and play badminton, floor hockey and bocce.
Approximately 60 of SO’s volunteers, ranging from students to retirees, help out regularly with the organisation’s sports programmes. These guys do not have an easy job. It takes a great deal of effort and patience to learn to understand and teach people with intellectual disabilities. They never gave up though. Despite the difficulties they may have encountered, they continue to display genuine concern towards the athletes; they are kind and considerate towards them; they are always there for them.
Because of these volunteers, children and adults with special needs have picked up what they may otherwise never have the chance to learn. Some have even excelled in their sport and defied critics by taking part in mainstream events like the Singapore Marathon.
With time, the volunteers have become more than just coaches. They are now good friends with many of the athletes—they chat with them over the phone or take them out for meals or movies. Tan Too Sheng, an athlete, is happy to have met these volunteers. “I like them,” he says. “They teach me things. They are all very good.”
In a country where life is so fast-paced that people can’t even wait a few seconds to allow passengers to alight from the train before barging in, where material concerns are a priority to many, dedicating several hours a week to unpaid work, to putting others above self, is a big deal. These volunteers’ efforts—some of them commit 6-10 hours a week—are admirable.
“I really admire all the coaches. They are very patient. They have gone through it all,” says Mimi Tan, parent of an athlete. “[I once saw] a kid at swimming training pull a coach’s hair because he was so afraid. These coaches won’t receive any awards for what they do but they still put in so much.”
Helen Chong, whose son attends badminton training, has also been touched by the volunteers’ dedication. “I’ve learnt a lot from them,” she says. “If they can sacrifice, I can sacrifice more. They are so caring.”
You reap what you sow. These volunteers, having invested their time and made sacrifices, have gained friends and become even better people.
Mdm Kamsih, another parent, only has three words for these kind souls. “I salute them”.
Two of Special Olympics’ volunteers share how volunteering has changed their lives…
Elangovan first volunteered with SO five years ago to “kill time in a useful way”. Subsequently though, he was moved by the existing volunteers and volunteering became a passion of his.
The teacher at Marsiling Secondary School became a coach with the badminton programme, where he gradually learnt more about the athletes and got drawn to their perseverance.
“I realised I had something to offer the kids other than just helping them with badminton,” he says. “I also realised that through interaction with them, I became more aware of the problems and challenges that people with disabilities faced. I was contented with being there for them as coach and friend.”
Now a head coach, Elangovan also volunteers as a running buddy with the running programme. He looks forward to the sessions “as a form of relaxation after a hard day’s work.”
Elangovan has volunteered for many other SO activities and has even travelled to Ireland and New Zealand with the athletes for the World Games and Asia Pacific Games. He has dedicated a lot of his time to helping those with learning disabilities but has never regretted any moment spent with them.
“The kids are filled with so much enthusiasm that it makes all the hours spent with them very valuable,” says Elangovan. [Besides] giving back to the society, I see myself learning and growing, both mentally and emotionally.”
This guy is passionate about what he does, be it teaching or volunteering and that is the message he would like to share with others.
“Having the passion in whatever we do makes life more meaningful. Volunteering has to come from the heart.”
It was serendipity that led Jia Chyang to begin volunteering with Special Olympics. The pool he used to swim at closed down, so he visited Delta Swimming Complex instead.
“I saw the SO swimming programme there and approached them to find out more,” says JC, as he is known to the athletes. “I decided that rather than waste a Saturday morning on myself, I might as well spend it on something more meaningful.”
Three years on, the avid triathlete is a coach with SO’s running and swimming programmes. Besides coaching the athletes in their respective sports, he helps them watch their diet, co-ordinates athlete-volunteer pairings and lends an ear to the athletes or their parents. He is also swimming and running buddy to the athletes when they take part in mainstream competitions like the OSIM triathlon.
Volunteering with SO has taught JC to be more patient and to see things from a different perspective. It has also been a fulfilling journey.
“There is always a sense of fulfilment when you know you have spent a little of your time to make the lives of others a little better and happier,” says JC. “A lot of our problems in life aren’t really problems at all compared to the challenges people with special needs face daily.”
While JC, like the other volunteers, did not set out hoping to gain anything in return, he has received something priceless. “[The athletes’] smiles are the ultimate reward,” he says.
Of course, when the athletes smile, the volunteers smile too.
Mr Henry Proctor first volunteered his services as a soccer coach at Chao Yang Special School in 1989 when he started coaching the boys under the Special Olympics Soccer Programme. The school caters to children with intellectual disability between the ages of 7 and 13 years old and is run by the Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN). Since then he has been very passionate about the coaching and when the boys graduated to APSN Tanglin Special School, he saw the need for their continuous skills development and offered his services to the school where he has been coaching soccer till todate.
Being a certified referee with the Federation Referees Association of Singapore, his extensive experience and networking is a tremendous advantage for Special Olympics Singapore. He was Head Coach for the Soccer Team when Special Olympics Singapore participated in the 1st Asia Pacific Games in Shanghai in 1996. He was the Soccer organising committee chairman for two consecutive Special Olympics Singapore National Games in 1997 and 2001. He assisted in conducting a soccer coaching clinic in the early years of his involvement. In 2002, he was the advisor and Head Referee for our 1st Unified Soccer Tournament which had 14 participating teams.
The Special Athletes who trained under Mr Proctor have always regarded him as their mentor even after they have left school and are now in open employment. Due to his significant contribution to the development of soccer training in Special Olympics Singapore, his name would always be synonymous with our soccer programme.
