PayPal Singapore’s Development Center (SDC) celebrated a monumental milestone this year - its 11th year anniversary – with a meaningful touch. Following last year’s sun-soaked fun at Universal Studios, the team decided to celebrate this year’s anniversary a little differently, emphasizing not just team spirit amongst the PayPal family but also the importance of giving back to the community. Centering around the theme of “Built to Last”, SDC collaborated with Ling Kwang Nursing Home through its CSR committee PayPal SG GIVE to present the largest GIVE event to date, with over 160 SDC employees coming together to give back to the community.
Ling Kwang Nursing Home was specially selected for this purposeful celebration as it was one of only 80 such facilities providing care services for senior citizens. The event kicked off with a warm welcome by Mr. Dennis Tan, CEO of Ling Kwang Nursing Home. SDC volunteers then got into action, serving afternoon snacks to all the residents. Volunteers also had the opportunity to interact with residents, making this experience an even more engaging one.
Then, it was time for some geek style fun – the Wheelchair Challenge! 15 teams were formed and briefed on how to assemble a wheelchair. Each team then assembled two wheelchairs within the stipulated time of one hour. It turned out our engineers are just as good with hardware as they are with their software! But this was not the end of the challenge. In the spirit of code craftmanship, the teams were accountable for not just the looks, but also the quality of these wheelchairs. They were Built to Last, after all. The assembling was followed by a highly anticipated wheelchair race. In the hall, designated racers from each team went head to head in a competition to demonstrate the quality and stability of the wheelchair their team had put together.
The visit concluded with PayPal donating 30 wheelchairs as well as a cash donation of S$ 5,000 in appreciation and support for all the much-needed work organisations like Ling Kwang Nursing Home are doing for the local community. There was an internal fund-raising event held a day before the visit, where employees were able to purchase a customized set of assorted Lego Figurines depicting our technologists for S$50. All proceeds went to the nursing home. These collector items were scooped up in no time and in addition to the amazing memories of SDC11, now the employees also have a one of a kind souvenir to remember the SDC family by.
No event is complete without a party and SDC11 was not going to be the first, with PayPal engineers moving the festivities to a hip, local favorite, Timbre at Substation, where there was plenty of food, drinks, live music, service awards and other opportunities to celebrate. Jerry Tso, Director of Singapore Development Center, spoke for all when he shared that the pride, camaraderie and hard work that brought SDC to its 11th year will take PayPal employees to our 25th and beyond.
With all these excitement for the 11th anniversary – what’s for next year’s?
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. - Henry Ford.