Nimble fingers
\nThe Star Online
\nBy ONG YEE TING<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ALTHOUGH she is now 83 years old with failing eyesight, Tan Eng Tin still has the enthusiasm to contribute to charity. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tan is one of the consistent volunteers of Penang Adventist Hospital, offering services on most Wednesdays to make handicraft for charity sales.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love spending my time here, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meaningful and I feel useful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, while stitching some colourful pieces of cloth to make a cushion cover.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
She is among a group of 30 women who meet regularly to work on handicraft ranging from those as small as pin cushions to fancy toddlers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dresses with fine embroidery and smocking.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
They set up a small kiosk at the hospital lobby to sell their handicraft to patients, visitors and hospital staff.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
he chairperson of the volunteer group, Tang Poh Gim, 60, said the group was set up in 2001 and had since been making craft for sale to the public. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our volunteers are all friends and we share with each other ideas and techniques of making the craft,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tang said the items sold like hot cakes during festive seasons. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People like to buy small items like our creative door knob covers and useful utility bags to decorate their houses and teddy bears and bags as gifts to friends,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, showing a few of their festive-themed products.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the years, they had collected about RM30,000 through sales and the money had been handed over to the hospital management to be used for charity purposes.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Housewife Betty Cheong, 60, said sewing was her hobby since she was a child and the voluntary work was an opportunity for her to put her interest to good use.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kathryn Loh, 49, is an administrative staff and instead of spending her Wednesday off days relaxing at home, she finds volunteering in the hospital a much better way to spend her free time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am one of the earliest who joined the service and I learn a lot from my friends here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said with a smile.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the products are reasonably priced and customers find them interesting.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace Kung, 45, who was visiting her mother-in-law did her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shopping\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at the booth, picking assorted bags and cushion covers.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u009dThese items are pretty and the prices are also reasonable. They make good presents,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The charity handicraft sale is held at the hospital lobby on most Wednesdays. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nimble fingers The Star Online By ONG YEE TING ALTHOUGH she is now 83 years old with failing eyesight, Tan Eng Tin still has the enthusiasm to contribute to charity. \u00c2\u00a0 Tan is one of the consistent volunteers of Penang<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/indonesia-handicraft.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}