SPEECH BY DR ,

MAYOR OF NORTH WEST DISTRICT AT

OPENING OF NORTH WEST BRISK WALK FESTIVAL ON

SUNDAY, 8 JULY 2012, 8.30 AM AT

REPUBLIC POLYTECHNIC

His Excellency President Dr Tony Tan

My parliamentary colleagues, Minister , Minister

Vivian Balakrishnan, Mr Hawazi Daipi, Mr , Ms Ellen

Lee, Mr Ong Teng Koon, Mr Patrick Tay and Mr

Distinguished Guests

Community Leaders

Brisk Walking Champions and Co-ordinators

Ladies and Gentlemen

Dear Residents,

A very good morning to all of you.

Introduction

2 It gives me great pleasure to see so many of you this morning at the Opening of the North West Brisk Walk Festival! Today 1

marks the commencement of a 6-week long Festival to celebrate our tenth year anniversary of North West Brisk Walking Clubs programme set up in 2002. This is the first Brisk Walk Festival organised in

Singapore!

Evolution of North West Brisk Walking Clubs

3 The North West Community Development Council (CDC) launched our flagship programme, the North West Brisk Walking Clubs in June 2002. Since then, the clubs have been actively promoting healthy lifestyle and social cohesion in the community. Today, we are proud to announce that there are 135 clubs with 56,000 members in the

North West District. This is a seven-fold increase in membership compared to the 8,000 founding members back in 2002. Moreover,

65% of our clubs have been organising brisk walking activities at least once a week for their members. We have indeed come a long way in forming these clubs and advocating the healthy lifestyle message to our residents.

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North West Brisk Walk Festival

5 The North West CDC spent the last six months conceptualising the North West Brisk Walk Festival. We involved multiple stakeholders in our planning process, to seek interesting ideas on the different types of walks that we can organise throughout the 6- week long Festival. With the support of our North West Brisk Walking

Clubs, we have come up with interesting novelty walks that will appeal to everyone. Some activities include speed dating walk for singles to make new friends; Bukit Brown Cemetery Night Walk for the adventurous; Care for Cats Walk and a Dogs Walk for animal lovers and Gardens by the Bay Walk for brisk walkers to visit the newly- opened bayfront garden. Throughout the Festival, we will be organising over 110 brisk walks comprising 13 different themes that outreach to almost 20,000 brisk walkers.

Supports from North West Grassroots Advisers and Residents

6 Today, we are very pleased to have our President Dr Tony

Tan to grace this special occasion. President Dr Tony Tan has been a strong advocate for the North West Brisk Walking programme when he

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was then the Deputy Prime Minister and Adviser to Sembawang

Grassroots Organisations (GROs). We also cannot forget the tireless support from all past and present North West Grassroots Advisers, and our brisk walking champions and co-ordinators, as well as the strong participation from all our residents over the past years.

Volunteers of North West Brisk Walking Clubs

7 Adding on, the success of the North West Brisk Walking

Clubs would not have been possible without the help of our community partners. North West Grassroots Organisations, Residents’ Committees

(RCs) and Neighbourhood Committees (NCs) have been actively driving this programme in their divisions. Over 350 dedicated volunteers, made up of our Brisk Walking Club Champions,

Coordinators and Exercise Leaders, have contributed significantly to promote healthy lifestyle and organise an average of 4,600 activities yearly at the various Clubs. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our 350 dedicated volunteers for their efforts in growing the

North West Brisk Walking Clubs and we look forward to working with

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more passionate and dedicated volunteers to foster a strong and caring community.

Supports from Corporate Partners

9 Partnerships with our corporate partners have also been fruitful. We hope to partner more like-minded organisations to multiply our efforts in bonding residents through healthy lifestyle programmes.

With this, I would like to thank London Weight Management Pte Ltd for stepping forward and contributing $500,000 towards North West

Brisk Walking programmes for these two years. In addition, Kee Wee

Hup Kee Food Manufacture Pte Ltd has also been very generous in sponsoring EGO products over the past two years. With such strong corporate supports, our Brisk Walking Clubs are able to continue their growth and outreach to more residents.

Conclusion

10 On this note, I would like to thank all our Grassroots

Advisers, District Councillors, Grassroots and Community

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Organisations, Corporate Companies, Schools, brisk walking volunteers and residents, for your invaluable support in promoting brisk walking to our residents. Let us continue to put our strengths together to build and expand the North West Brisk Walking Clubs to create a strong brisk walking culture in the district. With good health and strong community bonds, our Brisk Walking Clubs members will never walk alone!

11 I wish you all an enjoyable morning. Thank you.

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