HP walks for charity

Singapore - Around 150 Hewlett-Packard employees and their families took a walk for charity last Saturday as part of a fund-raising drive organised by the technology company.

HP held a charity walk for their employees at HortPark and Forest Walk on 6 September to raise funds for both the President's Challenge 2008 and the Garden City Fund. The latter fund, which finances programmes to develop Singapore's parks and greenery, will see the first donation from HP in its bid to drive a stronger green message to the public.

Besides contributing to local communities socially and environmentally, Tan Yen Yen, vice president and managing director of HP Singapore, believes such events allow successful employee engagement at the same time. "We also look forward to spending time with our families in doing something meaningful."

HP is also raising funds for the charities by selling coupons that participants can use to join activities which include a carnival, a donation drive and a charity golf event. The beneficiaries are people from destitute families and the elderly from St Hilda's Community Services Centre and Sathya Sai Social Service.

The carnival, held together with the charity walk, was attended by close to 2,000 participants including employees and their families, customers and alumni. Last year, close to 1,000 HP Singapore staff volunteered for 16 activities with charitable organisations in Singapore for a full day raising over S$172,000 in the process.