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Mooncakes of a special flavour

By Cai Jiening

Recent graduate, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences


PLAY DOUGH: All set to work on the mooncakes


FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE: Ms Cai Jiening, Outgoing Vice-President (Special Projects), 8th Management Committee, NUS Students’ Community Service Club, making the mooncakes


IN THE SPIRIT OF GIVING: Volunteers involved in the mooncake-making activity

It was 8am on a Sunday morning, a time when most people would still be sleeping, but 100 of us volunteers of the NUS Students’ Community Service Club were already up and about, excited over a mooncake-making event organised by Man Fut Tong Welfare Society.

Our mission was to make 10,000 mooncakes for the elderly from different parts of Singapore. The timing was perfect as it was midterm break. Upon reaching our destination, besides feeling the warmth on our backs from the morning sun, it was the smell of the fillings and the snowskin dough that welcomed us.

This meaningful event took place in a cosy hall in Paya Lebar Kovan Community Club. Each of us played a different but equally important role in the making of the mooncakes. After doing some warm-up exercises with the rest of the volunteers, we were ready to get our hands working!

Soon after, the hall was filled with banging sounds of the moulds and the shuffling of footsteps by those involved in packing the mooncakes. Owing to the collective effort and efficient execution, the event ended much earlier than expected. It was really a fun and enjoyable experience!

Though most of us had no prior experience in making mooncakes, there was great satisfication in seeing balls of flour and fillings being moulded into presentable pieces of mooncakes.

At the end of the day, we felt that our effort was truly worth the while, considering the pleasure of the elderly who would be enjoying the fruits of our labour.

30 September 2010
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