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LUMEN | MAKING A DIFFERENCE WITH 17,000 GOOD DEEDS
Making a Difference with 17,000 Good Deeds
To mark SJI ’ s 170th anniversary in 2022 , a pair of student leaders had been quietly working with the other Student Councillors , brainstorming and planning behind the scenes since late 2021 . Despite being mere 15-yearolds in Secondary 3 then , both Horatius Koh and Owenn Phua had big hearts and even bigger ideas to engage the SJI school community to serve the larger society , through their ambitious plan of completing 17,000 good deeds by October 2022 . In this story , they share how this purposeful plan , which was to be accomplished in ten months , came about :
The 170th anniversary not only marks 170 years of heritage for SJI but also 170 years of the Lasallian mission in Southeast Asia . This was only made possible by the Lasallian Brothers and IJ sisters who first came to Singapore on the ‘ La Julie ’ ship , at the invitation of Reverend Fr Jean-Marie Beurel . Venturing into unknown regions to set up the first Catholic school - St . Joseph ’ s Institution - in Singapore for the last , the lost and the least was a testament to the courage and generosity of the Lasallian Brothers . Since the beginning , the Lasallian mission has been guided by the values of faith , service and community . In SJI , Josephians are encouraged to “ Enter to Learn , Leave to Serve ”. In order to commemorate our heritage , we decided that it was important to carry on the spirit of generosity as one community and have the courage to dream big and set a high target . By the end of this project , we hoped that the SJI community would grow to become even more generous to share their gifts with the less fortunate and that everyone would have a greater appreciation of being a Josephian and a Lasallian .
Although we both originally had different targets in mind , we were aligned in our idea of doing ‘ Acts of Kindness ’. Thus , given the similarities in our ideas , we were tasked to work together to finetune and lead this mega project and began planning for it a whole 4 months before January 2022 . Both of us were anchored in the idea of appreciating our roots and continuing the Lasallian mission . With the main objective and mission for this project in mind , we started with a realistic number of ‘ Good Deeds ’. “ 17,000 ” was chosen because it would average around 8 Good Deeds per person , which would be
“ quite achievable ”, considering that this project was intended to be conducted over 10 months , along with the communal activities the school had already planned .
Next , we had to decide what would count as a “ Good Deed ”. Thinking back on our mission and objective , we decided to define a Good Deed as “ sharing our gifts with those around us ”. This meant that any deed revolving around this baseline would be counted towards the total number . This would make it easier for students to grasp the concept of a Good Deed as well as carry it out as small actions such as helping out with the dishes at home or tutoring your sibling would count ! With the Good Deed defined and the total target set , the rest of the preparation went by with ease . We also enlisted the help of fellow councillors , Danny Chandiramani and Nicholas Koenig , to oversee the project as the year went by .
Through coming up with ideas for the project and executing the project , we gained a greater understanding of the school community and were able to pinpoint the various obstacles that we had to overcome in order to achieve our goal . For example , we had originally hoped to organise school-wide community service projects , but due to the prevailing SMMs at the time of the project launch , we could not do this but instead counted on CCA and CAS groups to organise their own projects .
With this in mind , it was decided that this project of 17,000 Good Deeds was to be completed over the course of about ten months from January to October 2022 . Everyone in the Josephian community - students and staff - could contribute to the collective goal , and play their part as Men and Women for Others . Through this project , the 11th Student Council hoped to show everyone that small acts of kindness from each individual can all add up , having a large impact on the community in SJI and the less fortunate in Singapore .
The project was officially launched at the Inaugural 2022 , which started with a tote-bag making activity carried out during the Inaugural celebrations . The tote-bag making activity called upon all Josephians to play their part in protecting and preserving the environment through
Making tote bags out of T-shirts for the less fortunate
upcycling . This opening project was the baseline to get the ball rolling , leading to various CCA-initiated as well as studentinitiated VIA projects for the Singapore community .
Throughout the project , students and staff in SJI could contribute to the total number of Good Deeds by various means . Firstly , they could initiate projects and activities to give back to the community within their CCA . Secondly , they could participate in school events that benefitted the SJI community ; an example would be the Open House . Thirdly , students , on their own accord , could go out and do community service and sign up with external organisations to give back to the Singapore community . However , the small everyday actions students do for their friends or siblings were not disregarded . Ultimately , any and every action which revolves around the central idea of “ Giving back ” could and would be counted towards the total number of Good Deeds .
Within the SJI community , students demonstrated kindness and generosity through small actions such as helping each other with school work . These small acts of kindness extended beyond the walls of SJI where Josephians were seen proactively helping to prepare dinner for their family or tutoring their younger siblings . On a larger scale , SJI students voluntarily participated in activities such as the Ang Pow collection during Chinese New Year as well as various community service projects organised by their CCA and CAS groups .