His Excellency, President S R Nathan and Mrs. Nathan was the Guest-of-Honour at “A Night Of Hope’s Fundraising Dinner, a charity benefit by Disabled People’s Association Singapore held on Friday, June 5 2009 at the Vanda Ballroom, Marina Mandarin Singapore.
The event was held to raise funds for the Disabled People’s Association (DPA) will be used to finance the various projects in which the Association is currently involved, particularly the Advocacy projects. Being the only advocacy organisation in Singapore, DPA’s mission is to be the voice of people with disabilities, helping them achieve full participation and equal status in the society through independent living.
Besides fund raising, a very important goal of this event is to raise awareness of the cause which DPA represents, and what better way to communicate this than through the remarkable talents of the hosts and entertainers at the event said Mr. Leo Chen Ian, President of the DPA.
The evening’s entertainment presented by talented performers includes intellectually disabled artists from MINDS with their internationally-renown Taiko Drums performance, hearing impaired piano performance artists Azariah Tan, song-signing by Signifique from the Singapore Association for the Deaf and Lily Goh on the marimba. Performances enjoyed by all as a living proof that physical limitation need not hinder our performer’s abilities to showcase their great talents.
Guests were also treated to a special performance by Gilbert Tan with piano accompaniment by Eunice Olsen featuring ‘A Voice of Our Own’ song.
An evening also saw a high-spirited auction with bids coming in for items ranging from an exclusive holiday at Banyan Tree villa in Tuscany, Italy to key memorabilia such as Rolling Stones Fender Electric Guitar signed by all members of the band, James Bond 007 the entire run of Bonds to carpets and dazzling blue topaz earring among others. All items put up for auction were up for grabs almost instantly.
DPA thanks the many individual and corporate sponsors for generously providing a host of attractive items and for donating the proceeds from the auction to DPA.
Rounding up the entertainment for the night was the jazz trio, “Donna & Friends”. The trio consisting of Donna Doherty on vocal accompanied by pianist Adi Rosdee and guitarist, Michiel Regelink
The event was attended by over 200 people including many media personalities, government and business leaders. NMP Eunice Olsen, Emcee-Dale Elliott, Australian award wining comedian, Vernetta Lopez, Randall Tan and Melody Chen, Singapore media and art celebrities who honoured the event with their presence.
Over S$60,000 (nett) was received from the sale of tables, outright donations and corporate sponsorships as well as proceeds from the live and silent auction and raffle draw.
Disabled People’s Association Singapore would like to take this opportunity to thank all donors and sponsors, supporters and volunteers for making this event possible.
Please click here to view the event photographs.
