Mr Good Deeds

There is no deny­ing that this man is an ambas­sador for vol­un­teerism and enjoys help­ing people.

BY: Eleanor Yap

Hoon Thye Yong’s face is recog­nised in many organ­i­sa­tions. Every Mon­days, he makes his usual rounds at Ang Mo Kio – Thye Hua Kwan Hos­pi­tal. As a vol­un­teer for the hos­pi­tal for seven years, he rolls the “Delight Cart” around the wards (above), pass­ing bis­cuits, sweets, cakes or other light snacks to patients and their fam­i­lies. He shared that dona­tions are wel­come as the money goes into the hospital’s Patient Wel­fare Fund.

Vol­un­teer­ing in his blood

His vol­un­teer­ing activ­i­ties, how­ever, doesn’t stop there. On Tues­days and Thurs­days, you can find the 82-​year-​old at RSVP Sin­ga­pore – The Organ­i­sa­tion of Senior Vol­un­teers, hap­pily going about his admin­is­tra­tion duties. This after­noon was no dif­fer­ent as he was busy reg­is­ter­ing a senior to one of the many courses at the non-​profit organisation.

And, once a month, he is down at his com­mu­nity cen­tre, sit­ting on the Senior Cit­i­zens’ Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee and help­ing to bring his community’s seniors on var­i­ous activ­i­ties. The grand­fa­ther of one has been vol­un­teer­ing for 24 years and his efforts were finally noticed by The Straits Times’ Stomp, a citizen-​journalism and social-​networking web­site and he was one of three indi­vid­u­als given the Good Deeds Award and the oldest.

As other seniors ques­tion why he vol­un­teers as there is no money involved, that has not stopped Hoon from doing things dif­fer­ently. “Vol­un­teerism is in my blood. I want to help peo­ple. It gives me a rea­son to wake up each morn­ing,” he said. He has done many vol­un­teer­ing activ­i­ties through­out the many years includ­ing being a men­tor for four years at Ang Mo Kio Pri­mary School and help­ing stu­dents from sin­gle fam­i­lies, or who have par­ents who are work­ing or are divorced, with their home­work. He explained that he could not con­tinue his work there as his work at RSVP overlapped.

He has also been a Changi Senior Ambas­sador, a pro­gramme that was ini­ti­ated by RSVP and the Civil Avi­a­tion Author­ity of Sin­ga­pore, where he helped to answer queries from tourists and some­times helped them with their prob­lems. How­ever, he lamented that due to his long trav­el­ling hours to and from his home all the way to the air­port and later, stand­ing for four hours, he had to call it quits after a year. “I enjoyed doing it but my leg didn’t. When I stand too long, I can’t bend my knee,” said Hoon, who has osteoarthri­tis for 10 years and takes glu­cosamine daily.

Strength train­ing

He added that to do this vol­un­teer­ing work, it is impor­tant to be fit. That is why he hits the gym three times a week for over an hour each time, and brisk walks twice a week in the park in the evenings. At the gym, he does bicep curls and chest fly exer­cises with dumb­bells. He also uses the lats pull­down and the leg raise machine. He hap­pily showed off his mus­cle on the right side and as this writer can attest, they were def­i­nitely mus­cles! “I want to be fit and not flabby!” he said, sport­ing a pedome­ter on the side of his belt, which has already clocked in less than 6,000 steps today. “I have been mostly in RSVP from 9am to 3pm,” explained Hoon of his low num­ber. “I am going brisk walk­ing later.”

Hoon, a retired super­vi­sor in the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Board’s (PUB) Elec­tric­ity Depart­ment, started going to the gym only at the age of 70. “My friend started going to the gym at age 65 and I thought to myself that if he could do it, I could too! I laughed at him ini­tially,” he explained. “You have got to do what you can. There is no need to carry heav­ier weights when you can’t man­age them.” With all his con­sis­tent train­ing, he said he has ben­e­fited with an increased mus­cle mass, and he feels more health­ier and is able to keep up with his busy vol­un­teer­ing schedule.

So when will he likely stop vol­un­teer­ing? “If I feel I can’t con­tribute any longer, I will stop. I want to do it as long as I can,” said Hoon. “I really enjoy doing vol­un­teer work. It gives my life mean­ing. When I go to the hos­pi­tal, the patients are happy to see me. When I was at the hos­pi­tal ini­tially, I was help­ing the ther­a­pists reha­bil­i­tate patients and it was a won­der­ful sight to see them improve.”

Hoon is a shin­ing exam­ple that age shouldn’t stop you from doing the things you want to do.

(PHOTO CREDIT: Ang Mo Kio – Thye Hua Kwan Hospital’s publication)