MOS Mr Chan Soo Sen with Active Senior Citizen of the Year,                                           Ms Teresa Hsu and Grandparent of the Year, Mr Lim Soo Tsu.

Remain active in the family and community, and enjoy your golden years. That was the message sent out to seniors during the annual Senior Citizens' Week (SCW).

Last year's SCW was held from 16 to 23 November 2003. Kicking off SCW was
the Senior Citizens' Awards 2003. Held at Raffles Town Club on 13 November,
the Awards for Active Senior Citizen of the Year and Grandparent of the Year were presented together with the Intergenerational Bonding Programme Award.

More than 150 activities and ground events were organised throughout the SCW with participation from grassroots organisations, self-help groups, voluntary organisations, places of interests and government agencies. Even commercial outlets joined in by providing dining concessions for the elderly and their families.

SCW brochures, which carried a listing of all the exciting activities, were made available at community centres, libraries and post offices. For the first time, tech-savvy elders and family members could also check out the activities at a dedicated website - www.seniorcitizensweek.com.sg.

A special Grandparents' Day Carnival, held at the Toa Payoh Central Amphitheatre, rounded off the week-long celebrations. Revolving around four specially-themed zones, namely Family Roots, Family Games, Family Fitness and Family Picnic, some 5,000 people, including many three-generation families, joined in the festivities.

Our inspiring role models take centrestage

For the first time in the history of the Senior Citizen's Awards, members of the public were invited to vote for the winners in two categories - the Active Senior Citizen of the Year Award and the Grandparent of the Year Award. By the closing date, close to 30,000 votes were received via SMS, the hotline and website. The eight finalists, their families and guests waited with anticipation for the winners' names to be announced at the gala dinner. It was a close fight in both categories - hardly surprising as each of the finalists were all deserving winners in their own right.

The Active Senior Citizen of the Year went to Ms Teresa Hsu, who has dedicated more than 70 years of her life to help the less fortunate. At 91 years of age, she is also the oldest finalist. Receiving the Grandparent of the Year award was Mr Lim Soo Tsu, 83. The proud grandparent of 11 grandchildren had penned a book on his family roots. The book, titled 'From Swatow to Singapore: A Short Family History', helped to close the generation gap in the Lim family and prompted family members to take pride in their heritage.

Mr Chan Soo Sen, Minister of State, Ministry of Community Development and Sports and Ministry of Education presented the awards to the two award winners and six merit winners. He said, "They have clearly demonstrated that age is no barrier when one is truly passionate about life. Indeed, they are inspiring examples of active ageing and excellent role models for other seniors as well as the younger generation."

Mr Chan also presented awards to three organisations, commending them for initiating innovative Inter-Generational Bonding (IGB) programmes. The three organisations were Fei Yue Community Services, Singapore Literature Society and St Hilda's Community Service Centre.

Fei Yue Community Services put up a play about intergenerational issues using real life scenarios identified by social workers. The Singapore Literature Society came up with a programme, "Multi-Generation Works", where the experiences of the older generation were recounted and compiled into a book. At St Hilda's Community Service Centre, a show and tell programme called upon the younger generation to write about objects that were significant to their grandparents.

It's carnival time!

Grandparents are truly special. That is why, since 1999, every fourth Sunday in November has been designated as Grandparents' Day.

This year, MCDS, together with seven other organisations - Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE), Central Singapore CDC, Health Promotion Board, Infocomm Development Authority, National Environment Agency, National Library Board and Toa Payoh Central Constituency Office - came together to organise the Grandparents' Day Carnival. With the theme "Sharing the Experience of a Lifetime", the activities and programmes allowed multi-generational families to bond and have fun together.

To launch the carnival, Guest-of-Honour Mr Chan Soo Sen watered some young saplings beneath a 'Family Tree' to symbolise how the family nurtured, cared for and shared their experiences with the younger generation. Five family values - filial responsibility; communication; mutual respect; love, care and concern, and commitment were also highlighted during the ceremony to demonstrate how grandparents play a key role within the family unit - for the experiences they share with the family, passing on and reinforcing good family values in the young and for bringing and keeping the different generations of the family together.