Lucia LaiThrough the Corporate Social Responsibility Programme, ‘Embrace’, the Shangri-La Group of Hotels (comprising of Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, and Golden Sands Resort, Penang and Traders Hotel, Penang), light up the lives of the Lighthouse clients yesterday to celebrate Chinese New Year with the Lighthouse clients.
The Lighthouse is a place of hope, catering for the homeless and the urban poor. It is run by the social arm of the Catholic Church in Penang, under the Penang Office for Human Development.
Management and staff of the hotels were present to grace the occasion and to help in serving the clients.
Management present were Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa general manager Elaine Yue, Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa resident manager Rahim Flynn, Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa director of human resources JC Ramesh, Traders Hotel general manger Markus Christ, Golden Sands Resort director of human resources Lee Ee Phing and Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa and Golden Sands Resort director of communications Suleiman Tunku Abdul Rahman.
There were more than ten staff from Shangri-La Group of Hotels present to serve food to the clients.
On the Lighthouse side, those present were Penang Office for Human Development chairperson Eustace Nonis, Lighthouse director Gerard Robless and Lighthouse manager M. Belevendiran.
As early as 5.00pm, about 150 Lighthouse clients were already seated waiting for the event to officially start.
They got to munch groundnuts while waiting and later on CNY cookies were distributed to them.
The event got to a loud start when fire-crackers were let off in front of the Lighthouse building and 2 ‘golden’ lions dance to the accompanying music of the gong, cymba and the fire-crackers.
They pranced on the field, to the delight of all, until, the fire-crackers were all lit up.
The two ‘lions’ then, with their mouth filled with ‘gold coins’ (chocolate), went to where the clients were seated and distributed the ‘gold coin’ to each of them.
The volunteers and staff too received this ‘gold coin’ as it signifies prosperity.
After the ‘lions’ left, there were short speeches by Gerard Robless, Elaine Yue, and Lee Ee Phing respectively.
“The Shangri-La group of hotels inPenangis a firm believer in the importance of corporate social responsibility.
“Under the Embrace programme, we take corporate initiative to benefit the local community.
“We are extremely grateful for this opportunity to give back to society.
“We wish everyone a happy and healthy Year of the Water Snake,” said Elaine Yue.
The management of Shangri-La group of hotels and Lighthouse, then joined in to toss a giant platter of yee sang.
This was followed by the cutting of a 25kg chocolate cake.
Lighthouse clients whose birthday falls in the month of February were given the opportunity to cut the cake.
Dinner was then served after everybody sing ‘Happy Birthday’.
Clients enjoyed rice with several different delicious dishes.
The clients left the Lighthouse happy when they were given a goody bag filled with two mandarin oranges and an angpow each.
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Jimmy Tan
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