Gift From Our Heart

Values in Action (Track and Field Academy)

Olivia Sallit

Secondary 3, Track and Field Academy

While returning to school after the circuit breaker was met with excitement, we were also apprehensive because the situation was filled with uncertainty then. However, this sense of anxiety quickly disappeared after we saw how hard the frontline workers in Singapore Sports School, such as the security guards and cleaners, were working in order to keep our environment safe for learning. We were touched after hearing that they had continued to work through the circuit breaker and when school resumed for my schoolmates and I, they worked doubly hard to ensure that our lives could be as “normal” as possible.

Together with our Track and Field Academy mentors and support from Academy staff, we decided to gift our frontline staff a little something to show our appreciation.

On 15 July 2020, the Secondary 1 to 3 Track and Field student-athletes packed some small snacks into hand-designed paper bags. Little notes of appreciation and decorations were written and drawn on the paper bags to add a personal touch and, hopefully, to put a smile on the faces of our frontline workers at such a trying time. These gifts from the heart were handed to our cleaning staff, security guards, laundry staff and our landscape workers.

Though small, this to me and my peers, was a meaningful project because there was not a single moment where we felt unsafe during the past one month since we returned to school and this was only made possible by our frontline workers. Words cannot express our gratitude enough and we hope that the simple gesture showed them on behalf of the entire student body that we truly appreciate them, and remember their hard work and contribution to the school.