PACE: Guests from HCA Hospice get the full UWCSEA experience

STORIES UWCSEA

PACE guests from HCA Hospice get the full UWCSEA experience

Parents’ Action for Community and Education (PACE) is a volunteer parent-led organisation that falls under the Service umbrella of the College. PACE serves the UWCSEA community, across both campuses, via activities and events that provide both a social network and the opportunity to contribute.

It was all smiles on Friday, 10 May 2019, as 18 men and women from HCA Hospice Care were taken on a customised, wheelchair-friendly sustainability tour of Dover Campus. The special event was the long-awaited brainchild of parent volunteer group, the Parents’ Action for Community and Education (PACE). The volunteers organised a wonderful array of activities and experiences for the visitors, which began the moment they stepped onto campus. Throughout the morning, guests were given the full UWCSEA experience—from being serenaded by our Junior School student-singers and soloists, to traveling to far-away places at the exciting IDEAS Hub green screen room, to getting their creative juices flowing with a fun string-art activity. The tour also took them around the campus, where they learnt about UWCSEA’s sustainability mission and exchanged stories with our students. Looking across the smiling faces on the day, the joy from all present was palpable. And for good reason: it was a big occasion for both PACE and HCA—two groups who have worked closely together for a decade.

“I like volunteering with PACE because it connects me to the mission of the school. As a parent, I hear and witness my kids’ experience with the service component of their education. It’s really nice to have my own way to serve the local and regional community as well as connect with other UWCSEA parents at the same time.”

JOANNA WHITLEY, parent, East

HCA Hospice Care is a registered charity providing comfort and support to patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families. For years, PACE has been tirelessly working with HCA Hospice Care, organising entertainment, celebrating many different cultural events, keeping them company and learning about their lives and stories twice a month.

It seemed natural then, for PACE volunteers to, conversely, bring some of the hospice patients to us, giving them an interactive experience of UWCSEA, to celebrate this long-standing relationship between UWCSEA and the tight-knit HCA community.

The positive impact of the visit on the men and women from HCA Hospice Care cannot be understated. It takes a lot to be able to engage with people from all walks of life and the event successfully allowed for seamless and meaningful engagement.

Said one participant, “I especially liked the students’ performances, as well as the way they come to sit side by side and chat with us during lunch time, which show that students in this school are well-educated and have loving hearts. Teachers here have done a good job! Their performances and company greatly cheered up my spirit.”

The hard work of community engagement goes beyond the tour. PACE’s regular visits to HCA Day Hospice in Kwong Wai Shu Hospital leave a lasting mark on the Hospice’s patients. In November 2018, patients from HCA Hospice Care were taken on an outing to the Science Centre by PACE volunteers.

For many of the patients, the volunteers’ regular visits bring joy to their days. Shared Carol Lam, a PACE volunteer, “A patient asked me to sit down next to him. He couldn’t help but burst into tears, saying that he really appreciates our love and help, while he feels that usually the elderly are the group being neglected. When he sees us, he’s happy. I told him honestly that we enjoy being and helping at HCA. I think it’s a place to celebrate life, to celebrate what the elderly have achieved in their lives, and what they have contributed to society.”

PACE hopes to continue the campus tour annually, with plans to expand its array of activities to include planting rainforest tree seedlings in biodegradable pots in the forthcoming Dover Green Heart.

Over the last 20 years of dedicated service PACE volunteers have: set up two libraries in Myanmar, built nine schools in Cambodia and two in Myanmar, provided 20 years of hospice service in Singapore, donated over 200,000 lunches to children in need and helped over 100 children graduate from college in the Philippines. Read more about PACE

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