Friends of Park Connector Network Chairperson and Cycling Enthusiast Woon Tai Woon Shares How a Cycling Group Can Bring People Together to Do Good for the Community
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Issue 21 | August 2019 HDB Friends of Our Heartlands student volunteers share what it means to give back to the community Find out how a hydroponics garden in Woodlands is bringing the community together Catch up on the latest happenings at NParks Biodiversity Week and URA Draft Master Plan Exhibition Friends of Park Connector Network chairperson and cycling enthusiast Woon Tai Woon shares how a cycling group can bring people together to do good for the community. Woon Tai Woon Chairperson, Friends of Park Connector Network A Quarterly Newsletter for Friends of the MND Family CONTENTS 04 PEOPLE Starting a chain reaction Image: URA 07 08 PEOPLE PROGRAMME Eco-trailblazers Celebrating life in lead the way in the heartlands green heartland living Image: HDB PROGRAMME PROGRAMME PARTNERSHIP 10 Building a community, 11 Showering animals with 12 Celebrating Singapore’s seed by seed love and care biodiversity IN THE NEWS EVENT 14 16 The Bicentennial Experience EDITORIAL TEAM Jeanine Tan (MND) Contributors: Fiona Seah (MND) Pearly Cheong (CEA) Wong Yeang Cherng (NParks) Nur Elysa Sapari (MND) Tan Xiao Rong (HDB) Tan Xiao Rong (HDB) Michelle Wong (MND) Chong Poh Choo (NParks) Ang Ruyi (URA) Jamie Sing (MND) Denise Chen (NParks) SHARE A STORY FEEDBACK Share a story with us today! We would love to hear your Tell us how we are doing and how we can make Happy inspiring stories and personal journeys about volunteering Hands more interesting for you! Do you have suggestions with the MND Family. Be it an article, illustration or that could jazz up your read? photograph, we welcome your contributions. Do drop us a note at [email protected]! 2 Issue 21 | August 2019 Chairman of the MND Family Volunteer and Alumni Network, Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee (right) with Team Hydroglen, one of the winning teams at Build-a-thon 2019 celebrating HDB Community Week at Kampung Admiralty. CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE CHAIRMAN’S Dear Friends of the MND Family, Together with you, our work touches the everyday lives of many Singaporeans. Our neighbourhoods and towns are home to families and communities. Our green spaces offer respite amidst our cityscape, and green buildings help us to be urbanised yet sustainable at the same time. And careful, long-term urban planning enables us to be a modern global city while preserving the distinctive character and identity of our heritage buildings and conservation areas. Our volunteers and partners are an invaluable part of our MND Family. You lend us your advice, experience, ideas, time and expertise to help us make Singapore a better home for everyone, now and for the future. In doing so, you also inspire others to be a part of these efforts. Thank you! In this issue, we feature some ways that we are working together. For example, cycling enthusiast Woon Tai Woon is our Friends of Park Connector Network chairperson. Tai Woon champions a car-lite lifestyle and promotes safe riding etiquette so that shared spaces like our park connectors may be enjoyed safely and graciously by everyone. I am also happy that our youths are doing good for the community, from organising activities for seniors in the neighbourhood to caring for animals and encouraging responsible pet ownership. Whenever I meet our volunteers and partners, I am always encouraged by your passion and creativity for the causes you care about. If you have ideas for bringing communities together in our shared spaces, whether it is HDB void decks, along our park connectors or other public spaces (even our streets!) we would like to work with you to bring your ideas to life. I believe that by working together, we can do more and make an even bigger impact on the life of fellow Singaporeans. Yours sincerely, Desmond Lee Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for National Development Chairman of the MND Family Volunteer and Alumni Network HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT BOARD 3 A Quarterly Newsletter for Friends of the MND Family PEOPLE Starting a chain reaction Chairperson of Friends of Park Connector Network, Woon Tai Woon shares how a cycling group can bring people together to do good for the community. Beyond riding safely and saving the environment, these activities bond the community. It makes me very happy when people share that they find the event meaningful “ and realise that they too can be a part of the solution to “ make things better. Woon Tai Woon Chairperson, Friends of Park Connector Network Woon Tai Woon is the co-founder of and allowing those who live nearby to LovecyclingSG and chairperson of the go on their own rides more easily. Friends of Park Connector Network. Just like how park connectors link Occasionally, everyone would also various parks in Singapore, allowing gather to support large-scale events people to park-hop easily across such as URA’s Car-Free Sunday. We the island, Tai Woon mobilises also collaborate with URA and NParks communities and actively brings at other events. One of the first Sunday rides by together people who share a common LovecyclingSG, at the former National interest in cycling and doing good for Tell us about some of your Stadium in 2010. society. collaborations to promote a car-lite Singapore. What prompted you to set up On Car-Free Sundays organised by LovecyclingSG? URA, segments of roads are converted We started LovecyclingSG (LCSG) in into pathways and cycling paths. At the 2010 with the idea of “playing tourist same time, family-friendly and sports- in our own backyard”. We wanted related activities are made available for to explore and share various parts everyone to enjoy the car-free streets. of Singapore that held our personal At the inaugural Car-Free Sunday childhood memories. One of our earliest in 2016, LCSG and fellow riders, or rides was around the former National angels as I like to call them, led about Stadium and the Marina Bay area. As 800 riders from 3 different parts of the group cycled around, we shared our Singapore to the event in the Central personal stories about the places with Business District (CBD). Car-Free one another and in the process, learnt Sunday is a fun way to experience (Above) Tai Woon at the first Car-Free the CBD differently and for people to interesting things about them. Sunday event on the bamboo kar built experience going car-lite. by the LovecyclingSG team. (Bottom) Find out more about LCSG at the blog here. Tai Woon sharing about the bamboo kar One of our creative initiatives at Car- project with fellow cyclists. How has the group evolved since? Free Sunday was the bamboo kar. It Images: LovecyclingSG LCSG has grown in outreach and scope served as a visual comparison of the of our activities. Some of our members amount of space taken up by a car as have created their own cycling groups, compared to a bike. helping to connect like-minded people 4 Issue 21 | August 2019 Effectively, a car takes up as much space as 10 bicycles. Imagine the amount of space we could free up for the community if we go car-lite! Find out when the next edition of Car- Free Sunday is here. We also work with URA to showcase Watch the videos on going car-lite here. Tai Woon with URA volunteers at a everyday people who use bicycles as a cycling event co-organised with URA. mode of transport to work, in hopes of inspiring more to do the same. Image: URA Earlier this year, we organised a cycling activity for URA volunteers, sharing with them the simple joy of riding and the experience of riding in the city. You also volunteer with NParks. What do you do as chairperson of Friends of Park Connector Network (PCN)? As part of NParks’ Friends of the Parks community, the Friends of PCN engages Members of LCSG coming together to paint speed regulating strips at park connectors the community by introducing them to our for the safety of all users near Simei MRT. various park connectors and promoting Images: LovecyclingSG safe use. With the safety of park users in mind, we identified some danger spots and designed speed regulating strips to make the hazard areas more visible, such as the area near Simei MRT. It was a collective effort as the community chipped in to help paint them. We also encourage safe riding etiquette through the “Share the Track” programme. We believe that a great way Members of LovecyclingSG and My Bike Group gathering at the junction of Yishun to learn is by doing, so we designed drills Ave 7 to widen the landing area of a junction for the safety of pedestrians and PMD to teach safe riding. Some of the drills users. include keeping a stable balance when navigating narrow spaces on the roads Images: Eugene Wee and Uncle KC or pavements, manoeuvring an S-course, and using emergency brakes confidently. Together with NParks, we also created a video promoting the responsible use of Personal Mobility Devices (PMD) in our parks. As part of the “Share the Track” programme, members learn how to navigate narrow spaces (left) and manoeuvre an S-course (right). Images: LovecyclingSG Watch the video here. 5 A Quarterly Newsletter for Friends of the MND Family (Left) The LCSG and NParks team with the completed floating plant platform. (Right) Members transporting a platform made from upcycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for launching in the water. Images: LovecyclingSG Tell us about some of the meaningful experiences you things to carry. After 6 months, I got used to going car-lite.